288 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



Megaptera nodosa (BonnaterreV 

 Atlantic Humpback Whale. 



Plate 11, Fig. 5; Plate 16. 



Synonymy. 



1777. Balacna yibhosa Erxleben, Syst. Aniinaliuiii, p. GIO (in party. 



1780. Balacna hoops Fabricius, Fauna Groenlandica, p. 36; (also many later authors, hut not of Linne, 17.')8, 



which is Balacnoptrni physalun, young). 



1789. Balacna nodosa Bonnaterre, Tabl. Encycloped. et Method, des trois Regnes de la Nature, Cetologio, 



p. .5; True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1898, vol. 21, p. 635. 



1832. Balacna hncjlmana Rudolplii, Abhandl. K. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, p. 133-144, pi. 1-5. 



1834. Physeier gibhosa Dewhiu'st, Nat. Hist. C'etacea, p. 168. 



1837. Balaenoptera longimana Rapp, Die Cetaceen zoologiscli-anat. dargestellt, p. 55. 



1845. Balaeiioptcra (Boops) Loops Brandt, in Tchihatcheff's Voyage Sci. dans I'Altai Oriental, p. 438. 



1846. Megaptera longimana Gray, Zoo). A'oyage Erebus and Terror, Mammalia, p. 17. 

 1846. Megapteron longimana Gray, Zool. Voyage Erebus and Terror, Mammalia, p. 51. 

 1846. Megaptera amcricana Gray, Zool. Voyage Erebus and Terror, Mammalia, p. 17. 

 1846. Megapteron amcricana Gvay, Zool. Voyage Erebus and Terror, IMannnalia, p. 52. 



1861. Kyphobalaena longimana \an Bencden, Mem. Acad. Roy. Belg., Bruxelles, \o\. 32, art. 3, p. 38. 



1S62. Megaptera boops Lilljeborg, Upsala Fniversitets Ar.s.skr., 1861-62, p. 88 (of separate). 



1865. \Eschrichti;us robustus Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 3, vol. 15, p. 493; Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 



186.5, p. 40 (not of Lilljeborg). 



1865. Megapteron hoops Gray, Synopsis Whales and Dolphins British Museum, pi. 30 (jaws of a foetus). 



1865. M[egaptcra\ gigas Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 179 {crrorim). 



1865. Megaptera osphyia Cope, Proc. .\ead. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. ISO. 



1866. Megaptera longimana var. 2. moorei Gray, Cat. Seals and WJiales British Museum, ed. 2, p. 122. 

 1868. Kyphobalaena keporkuk van Beneden, Bull. Acad. Roy. Belg., Bruxelles, ser. 2, vol. 25, p. 12, footnote; 



p. 109. 

 1868. Kyphobalaena asphyia (sic) van Beneden, Bull. Acad. Roy. Belg., Bruxelles, ser. 2, vol. 25, p. 117. 

 1S6S. Kyphobalaena amcricana van Beneden, Bull. Acad. Roy. Belg., Bruxelles, ser. 2, vol. 25, p. 122. 

 1871. Megaptera bcllicosa Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. 12, p. 107. 

 1898. Megaptera noeac-angliue Trouessart, Cat. Mamni., fasc. 5, p. 1085 (tpioting Brisson and Gmelin where, 



however, the name is not used in a nomenclatorial sense.) 



History and Nomenclature. 



The Humpback Whale of the North Atlantic was well known to whalers for considerably 

 more than a centiuy before it was studied and named by zoologists. In the middle or latter 

 part of the 17th century it was regularly hunted at the Bermudas, and later, in New England 

 waters. Paul Dudley, in his famous essay of 1725, gave a brief description of it, as one of the 

 five species of whales occurring on the New England coast. The earlier systematists included 



