CETACEA. 19 



Balaena gibbosa, Erxl. Syst. 610 (from Dudley}; Gmelin, S. N. 



i. 225 ; Bonnat. Get. 5 ; Lacep. Get. 113; Virey, N. Diet. H. N. 



iii. 185 ; Gerard, Diet. Sci. Nat. iii. 440 ; Desm. Mamm. 528 ; 



Fischer, Syn. 523. 



B. gibbis vel nodis sex B. macra, Klein, MSS. Pise. ii. 15. 

 B. bipennis sex in dorso gibbis, Brisson, R. Anim. 351. 

 Knotenfish oder Knobbelfish, Anders. Isl. 225 ; Crantz, Govern. 



146. 



Bunched Mysticete, Shaw, Zool. ii. 495. 

 Inhab. Atlantic Ocean. 



Dudley's account is copied by Anderson, Crantz, and all suc- 

 ceeding authors. It may be only a Megapteron. 



Cuvier thought the Scrag Whale (jB. gibbosa) was only a Ror- 

 qual (Oss. Foss. v. 267) which had been mutilated, but I suspect, 

 from Dudley's account of the form, that it must be a Bal&na, 

 probably well known formerly. Indeed Beale (Hist. Sperm Whale) 

 speaks of it as recognized by the whalers now. 



Bonnaterre, and all succeeding authors, have referred to this 

 genus the Hump-backed Whale of Dudley, not understanding his 

 description of the belly "being reeved," that is, plaited; they 

 call it Bal&na nodosa. 



B. Back finned. Head elongate, flattened. Palate broad. 

 Baleen short, broad, twisted when dry. Belly plaited. 



SYN. Balsenoptera, Lacep. Cet. 

 Mysticetus, Wagler, Syst. Amph. 

 Rorqualus, F. Cuvier, Cet. 



The whalers recognize two kinds of this division, the Hump- 

 back and the Finner; Cuvier (Oss. Fos.) believed there were only 

 two species, one inhabiting the Northern and the other the 

 Southern ocean, and these now prove to be the types of the 

 genera distinguished by the whalers. 



Several authors having been induced by Cuvier' s example to 

 believe that all the Northern Finners were a single species, thought 

 that the variations in the proportions might depend on the age 

 of the specimens examined. Thus, 



1. Dr. Jacob (Dublin Journ. Science, 1825, 333) attempts to 

 prove that Bal&na Boops, B. rostrata, B. musculus, and B. ju- 

 bartes were but one species ; and he has taken considerable trouble 

 to bring together the measurements and proportions of the differ- 

 ent specimens which have been described. 



He gives an outline of his specimens, and contrasts it "with 

 an outline of Hunter's Piked Whale, drawn according to the 

 measurements given by him ; " and he observes, " that the pro- 

 portions of the body (of these two specimens) vary in a remark- 



