N0.1163. NOMENCLATURE OF THE WHALEBONE WHALES— TBUF. 633 



The list of species will, therefore, stand as follows : 



1. BaUvna mysticctus LiimtiHis. 



The bowhead or Arctic right whale. 



2. BaUenoptera lihijsalus (Linna?us). 



The common finback or rorqual. 

 Synonyms: 



Balcena physalus Linujeus. 

 Balama hoops Linn.neus. (Young.) 

 Physalus antiquorum Gray. 

 Balwnoptera miisculns auct. 



3. Balcenoptera musculus (Linuitus). 



The blue whale. 

 Synonyms: 



BaUvna musculus Linnteus. 

 BaUvnoptera sihhahUi (Gray). 



While three of the European species of whalebone whales are thus 

 believed to be provided with their proper Linna'an names, four others 

 not included in the Systema Naturie are yet to be considered. These 

 are the black whale, or nordcaper; the lesser rorqual, or little piked 

 whale; Kudolphi's rorqual; and the humpback. 



The first of these passes currently under the name of Balcena hiscay- 

 ensis, but this appellation was not used in print by Eschricht until 

 1860.^ Subsequent to 1758 the first Latin name for this whale, accom 

 pauied by a description, appears to be Balwna glacialis, which occurs 

 in Bonnaterre's Oetologie, 1789.^ Comparing it with the bowhead, this 

 author remarks: "This species only differs from the preceding by the 

 color and by the dimensions of the body. * * * it lives in the seas 

 of the North, near the coasts of Norway and of Iceland." In a footnote 

 he remarks : " In France it is called Nord- Caper ^ BaJeine de Sarde; in 

 Germany, Nordlcaper ; in Norway, Sildqual, Lilie-Hnal, Nordkaper.^^ 



This would seem to be sufficient for purposes of determination, and 

 the name Balcena glaciaUs should hold, unless discarded on the tech- 

 nical ground that glaciaUs is not a suitable name for a whale which does 

 not live in the ice, or because it may cause the species to be confounded 

 with the bowhead, which lives only in the arctic ice. Those who discard 

 the name for these reasons, will probably adopt Kerr's term islandica 

 {1792).'' 



The little piked whale bears currently the name of BaUvnoptera ros- 

 trata. The name BaUvna rostrata is given for the first time with a 



1 Revue and Mag. de Zool., 2tl ser., 1860, p. 229. 



"^Tableau Encycl. aud Method, des Trois Rogues de la Nature, Cetologie, 1789, p. 3. 



The name BaUvna (jlacialis occurs earlier (but subsequently to 1758) m Miiller's 

 Zool. Dan. Prodrouius, 1776, p. 7, but it is a nomen nudum. 



"Kerr, Animal Kingdom, 1792, p. 357. Kerr divides the " Common Whale," B. mys- 

 <ice/HS, into three subspecies: 1, B. myaticetua grmnlandica; 2, B.mysticeius islandica; 

 and 3, B, mysticetus major. 



