258 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES 



Balaenoptera acuto-rostrata Lacepkde. 

 Little Piked Whale; Least Rorqual. 



Plate 11, fig. 4; Plate 13, fig. 2; Plate 14. 



Synonymy. 



17S0. Balueiia rostrata Fabricius, Fauna Groenlandica, p. 40 (not of Muller, 1776). 



1803-4. Balaenoptera acuto-rostrata Lacepede, Hist. Nat. des Cetaces, vol. 1, p. 197, pi. 8; Thomas, Zoolo- 

 gist, 1S9S, ser. 4, vol. 2, p. 99; True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1898, vol. 21, p. 634. 

 1822. Balaenu hoops, Albers, Icon. Anat., pi. 1 (in part). 



1828. Balacna minivius borealis Knox, Cat. Prep. Whale, p. 14. 



1829. Balaena borealis fy rostrata Fischer, Synopsis Mammaliuni, p. 525. 



1830. Rorqualus hoops F. Cuvier, Hist. Nat. des Cetaces, p. 321, pi. 20 (in part). 



1837. Balaena minima Rapp, Die Cetaceen zoologisch-anat. dargestellt. Stuttgart and Tubingen, p. 52. 



1837. Rorquahis minor Jardine, Naturalist's Library, Mammalia, vol. 6, p. 142, pi. 7. 



1842. Rorqualus rostratus DeKay, Zool. New York, Mammalia, p. 130, pi. 30, fig. 1. 



1843. Balaenoptera hoops Newman, Zoologist, vol. 1, p. 33, fig. (in part). 



1845. Balaenoptera eschrichtii Rasch, Nyt Mag. for Natur^-idcnsk., vol. 4, p. 123. 



1846. Balaenoptera rostrata Gray, Zool. Voyage Erebus and Terror, Mammalia, p. 50. 



1846. Balaenoptera physalus Gray, Zool. Voy. Erebus and Terror, Mammalia, p. 18 (in i)iirt). 



1849. Pterohalaena minor Eschricht, Unters. iiber nord. Wallthiere, p. 109. 



1849. Pterohalaena minor groenlandica and hergensis Eschricht, K. Dansk. Vid. Selsk. Skrifter, ser. 5, vol. 1, 



p. 109. 

 1804. Balaenoptera minima Flower, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 418. 



1866. Balaenoptera microcephala Gray (ex Holboell MS.), Cat. Seals and Whales British Mus., ed. 2, p. 188. 

 1860. Pterohalaena prostrata Gray, Cat. Seals and Whales British Mus., ed. 2, p. 188 (attributed to Van 



Benedcn, 1861, in error). 

 1808. Agaphelus gihhosus Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliila., pp. 159, 224. 

 1868. Balaena gihhosa Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 159 (in part). 

 1877. Sibhaldius mondinii Capellini, Mem. Aecad. Sci. Bologna, ser. 3, vol. 7, p. 423. 

 1898. Balaenoptera mondini Trouessart, Cat. Mamm., p. 1078 (not Gervais, Journal de Zool., vol. 0, ]>. J 67). 



History and Nomenclature. 



No doubt the Little Piked Whale was well known to the Icelandic and Norse fisliermen 

 long before naturalists became familiar with it. In an ancient Norse manuscript called the 

 Royal Mirror (Speculum regale or Konigsspiegel) , and beheved to have been produced about 

 the year 1280, mention is made of sundry whales and large fish, which Guldberg (1904) has 

 attempted to identify. One of these, the "Geirhval," is believed by one commentator to.be 

 the present species, but of this there can be no certainty, and Guldberg does not vouchsafe an, 



