258 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES 



% 



Balaenoptera acuto-rostrata LACEPEDE. 

 LITTLE PIKED WHALE; LEAST RORQUAL. 



PLATE 11, FIG. 4; PLATE 13, FIG. 2; PLATE 14. 



SYNONYMY. 



1780. Balacna rostrata Fabricius, Fauna Groenlandica, p. 40 (not of Miiller, 1776). 



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

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

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



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



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



1836. Rorqualus loops F. Cuvier, Hist. Nat. des Ce"taces, p. 321, pi. 20 (in part). 



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

 1837. Rorqualus 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 Naturvidensk., 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 part). 



1849. Ptcrobalacna minor Eschricht, Unters. iiber nord. Wallthiere, p. 169. 



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



p. 109. 



1864. 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. 

 1866. Pterobalaena prostrata Gray, Cat. Seals and Whales British Mus., ed. 2, p. 188 (attributed to Van 



Beneden, 1861, in error). 



1868. Agaphclus gibbosus Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., pp. 159, 224. 

 1868. Balacna gihbosa Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 159 (in part). 

 1877. Sibbaldius mondinii Capellini, Mem. Accad. Sci. Bologna, ser. 3, vol. 7, p. 423. 

 1898. Balaenoptera mondini Trouessart, Cat. Mamm., p. 1078 (not Gervais, Journal de Zool., vol. 6, p. 167). 



History and Nomenclature. 



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

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

 Royal Mirror (Speculum regale or Konigsspiegel) , and believed 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 



