116 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



from the Finbacks and the Humpback, which were far less valuable and more difficult of 

 capture and therefore not the right species to pursue. The baleen or whalebone of these latter 

 species was until very recently, not considered fit for use, so that the Right Whales alone were 

 looked to for this commodity, hence the term 'Whalebone Whale,' noted by Dudley as applied 

 by the New England whalers to the present species. The name 'Seven-feet-bone' Whale, 

 mentioned by St. John de Crevecoeur, had reference to this maximum length of the baleen, in 

 contrast to the twelve- or fifteen-foot plates of whalebone produced by the Bowhead. On 

 account of its prevaihngly black color it is also called Black Whale (in Danish, 'Svarthval'). 

 The term ' Scrag Whale ' is to this day applied by the fishermen of the New England coast to 

 small examples of this species. It signifies a small or emaciated individual. Dudley applied 

 the term to one of the Finner Whales, to indicate a distinct variety. Sundry other names 

 have been given to this species by the European whalers. Thus the Icelanders call it 'Sletbag' 

 (or smooth back) from the lack of a dorsal fin; the Dutch whalers, who pursued them in summer 

 off the North Cape of Norway, knew it as the 'Nordkaper' or 'Noortkaper.' In scientific 

 parlance it has been called 'Baleine des Basques,' the Biscay or Basque Wliale, founded on the 

 Balaena biscayensis of Eschricht, then supposed to be a distinct species. This whale was long 

 pursued by the Biscayne whalers, who followed it even to the Banks of Newfoundland, but 

 their name for it appears to be 'Sardaco Baleac ' (meaning a whale that goes in schools) which is 

 rendered into French as 'Sarde' or 'Sarda.' By the Germans it is called Glattwal or Smooth 

 Whale in allusion to its lack of a dorsal fin and throat folds. 



Description. 



Form. — Body comparatively short, thick and stout, tapering towards the tail, to form a 

 lal^erally compressed peduncle — the ' small ' of the whalers — whose dorsal profile is sometimes 

 irregularly knobbed. The head is enormous, from a fifth to a fourth of the total length, the 

 upper jaw curved in an arc, the rostrum narrow, and fitting into the depression between the 

 lower lips. The bony rami of the jaws are broadly bowed outwards on each side, and support 

 the great fleshy Ups which project upward so as to enclose the upper jaw between them when 

 the mouth is shut. In side view the lower jaw is roughly semicircular in outline, with some 

 half dozen large irregular scallops along its dorsal margin. Near the end of the muzzle is a 

 broad cushion or excrescence, termed the 'bonnet,' of oval outline, and commonly much in- 

 fested by parasitic crustaceans. The use of this 'bonnet' is unknown. By some it is beheved 

 to be due to the presence of the parasites but it is found equally in young whales and is certainly 

 of natural origin. It is possible that it serves as a bumper. Its surface appears much worn or 

 eaten away so as to resemble a bit of furnace slag. A somewhat similar large roughened ex- 

 crescence is present anteriorly at each side of the lower jaw, and back of each are a few smaller 



