Introduction. 



In the year 1725, Paul Dudley, an eminent citizen of Massachusetts, communicated to the 

 Royal Society of London "an Essay upon the Natural History of Whales." This account, he 

 tells us, "respects only such Whales as are found on the Coast of New-England. And of these 

 there are divers Sorts." His information, though apparently taken for the most part at second 

 hand, was none the less substantially accurate, and his paper forms a landmark in the early 

 history of cetology. Many of the naturalists of the eighteenth century were indebted to it for 

 the accounts of whales in their compilations. Since that early date the literature on whales and 

 whaling has multiplied to an appalling degree, so that at the present day there is probably no 

 other order of mammals of which so much has been written, but so little is accurately known. 

 For whales cannot be observed or compared at will or without much labor. Yet at the present 

 day, it may fairly be said that the larger living species are clearly differentiated and that it 

 remains to fill in the many details of their life histories, their distribution, variation, and com- 

 parative anatomy. The influence of whaling on the development of naval skill and on commerce 

 and exploration need only be mentioned to recall the universal and romantic interest of this 

 pursuit. For a great part of the two past centuries, whahng has been a characteristic occupa- 

 tion of the New England seamen, and notwithstanding the diminution in number of whales 

 and the lessened market for their products, a few vessels still clear from New Bedford for the 

 fishery in tropic and arctic seas. 



The present account aims to give a general description of the species of whalebone whales 

 inhabiting the waters off the New England coast, together with a summary of what is known 

 of their habits and particularly of their occurrence and importance within the New England 

 limits. 



The full-page plates illustrating the several species are drawn by Mr. J. Henry Blake, 

 who, to his rare artistic skill, brings also a considerable first-hand knowledge of the appearance 

 of cetaceans. All these figures are drawn very carefully to scale from actual measurements, 

 in part taken by himself, in part by us both, or from the tables of dimensions in Dr. True's 

 (1904) monumental work on the Western Atlantic whales. As representations of the general 

 appearance and proportions of these huge mammals, I believe they are the best figures hitherto 

 made. For photographs of stranded whales, even though taken from well chosen points, fail 

 to show the outlines of the living animal. I am further indebted to Mr. Blake for many valuable 

 notes on several of the species. Acknowledgements are also gratefully made to the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology for the privilege of studying and recording specimens in its collection, 

 and to various observers whose names appear in the pages following, in connection with notes 

 they have furnished me. 



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