38 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 
observations make it certain that there is a ‘Scrag’ Right whale in the North Pacific 
which corresponds very nearly to that of the southern ocean.”' Macy, in his His- 
tory of Nantucket, informs us that 1t was the appearance of “a whale of the kind 
called Scragg” in the harbor there which led to the establishment of the whale 
fishery on that island” 
From these three observations it is evident that the term “scrag” is regularly 
included in the whaleman’s vocabulary. That there is a separate species to which 
the name applies is improbable, but it is still uncertain whether it merely character- 
izes abnormal individuals of the various species of Right whales, or definite varieties 
of one or more species of Right whales, or abnormal individuals of the large whales 
generally. The word “scrag,” of course, means emaciated, ill-favored, or rough and 
crooked. Further reference to this subject will be made later on. 
In 1741, we have for the first time, in Klein’s Historia Piscium, a summing 
up by a systematist of the American observations prior to that date. His classifi- 
cation is somewhat artificial and his nomenclature rather unsystematic. His synoptic 
table, in so far as it applies to the large whales, is as follows*: 
. In Dorso levi apinnes. 
. In Dorso gibbo apinnes. 
. In Dorso pinnate. 
Dorso levi apinnes. 
. Dorso levi pinnate. 
Dorso gibbo apinnes. 
Dorso gibbo pinnate. 
I. Edentule 
Physeteres | I Balzenz 
II. Dentatze 
PWNHH WHA 
The various species enumerated are as follows: 
BALZN# EDENTULA. 
In Dorso levi apinnes. 
1. Balena vera Zorgdragert. | = Bowhead.] 
2. Balena albicans; Weisfish Martensit & Zorgdr. [ = White whale. | 
3. Balena glacialis; ita communiter: Eisfisch. 
a. Australis; Zud-Eisfisch; dorso valde depresso, Zorgdrageri. 
6. Occidentalis; West-Eisfisch; dorso minus depresso, Ayusdem. 
c. Borealis; Nordkaper, Ayusdem. [= Atlantic Right whale. ] 
In Dorso gibbo apinnes. 
1. Gibbo unico prope caudam. Anglis: The Bunch or Humbak Whale . . . Fin- 
fisch. Vid. Transact. Phil. Vol. XXXIII. No. 387. P. 258. [ = Hump- 
back whale of Dudley. ] 
2. Gibbis vel Nodis sex. Balena macra. Anglis: Scrag-Whale. . . . Phil. 
Trans., tbid. | = Scrag whale of Dudley]. 
In Dorso pinnate. 
1. Ore Balene vulgaris, laminis corneis donato. 
a. Balena edentula, corpoire strictiore, dorso pinnato Ray. Finfish Zorgdr. 
Physeter Gesx. Anglis. Finbak-Whale. . . . LPhiél. Trans. al. 1. 
[Includes the Finback of Dudley. ] 
6. Fubartes; Balena nove Angliz. [The Bermuda Humpback of the anony- 
mous writer in Philos. Trans., 1, 1665, pp. 11-13.] 
2. Ore rostrato. [Not American. ] 
*Scammon, C. M., Marine Mammals, 1874, p. 67. 
* Macy, O., History of Nantucket, 1835, p. 28. 
* KLEIN, J. T., Historiz Piscium naturalis, pt. 2, 1741, pp. 9-16. 
