RUDOLPHI'S RORQUAL. 239 



is ruptured, which therefore represents borcalis in the North Pacific, and is considered by him 

 (1916) to be specifically the same. 



Occurrence in the Western Atlantic. Although DeKay (1842, p. 131) as long ago as 1842, 

 recorded a whale that stranded in the Delaware River, N. Y., as " Rorqualus borealis," he him- 

 self never saw the specimen and for his identification relied solely on information supplied him 

 by Dr. Mitchill. The whale was described as 38 feet long, with whalebone from one to two 

 feet long and "of a grey hairy appearance." DeKay adds that it had no dorsal elevation, 

 which led Dr. Mitchill to suppose that it was " B. boops." Probably the specimen was a Hump- 

 back, and De Kay's description of "Rorqualus borealis" would further indicate that this was 

 the ca<e, since he mentions the "long slender" pectoral limbs and "small triangular" dorsal 

 fin. It is probably safe to discard the record as far as it concerns the present species. 



The first known instance of the presence of Rudolphi's Rorqual in the western North 

 Atlantic was published by True (1903a), on "reliable information" of four specimens taken in 

 Placentia Bay, on the southeast coast of Newfoundland and brought to the whaling station 

 at Rose-au-rue during the summer of 1902. None was taken by other whaling stations on 

 the east and south coasts. In 1903, when I visited the Rose-au-rue station, one Pollack Whale 

 had been caught that year, about the first of September, and others were reported seen. I 

 examined the characteristic baleen of this specimen lying with other masses of whalebone just 

 as taken from the mouth. In 1904, more stations were established on the Newfoundland 

 coast and according to Millais, 39 Rudolphi's Rorquals were killed out of a total of 1275 

 whales taken at fourteen factories, that year. Since then Andrews (1916) reports two taken in 

 each of the years 1905, 1906, 1909, and 1912. 



Occurrence in New England. 



The paucity of records for the Pollack Whale on the North American coast, as just indi- 

 cated, makes the establishment of its place as a member of the New England fauna of especial 

 interest. It is with much satisfaction therefore that I record it from Chatham, Mass., thus 

 at once making its first record for New England as well as for the United States, and its most 

 southerly locality yet known on this side of the North Atlantic. The specimen in question 

 came ashore on the outer beach directly in front of the Old Harbor Life Saving Station, at 

 Chatham, in August, 1910. It was visited by a number of people, including Mr. John Mur- 

 doch, to whom I am indebted for information concerning it and for a piece of its characteristic 

 baleen. The life-savers had preserved some of the baleen plates, which with a jaw and two 

 ribs, were given me in October, 1910, by Mr. H. E. Eldridge, Keeper of the Station and 

 are now in the Society's possession. The remainder of the carcass had since washed away. 

 It was reported to me as about forty feet long, and was supposed by the fishermen with 





