260 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



this can be settled through a comparison of specimens these nominal species must continue 

 to be recognized, and their synonymy is therefore not here included. 



The type locality as given by Lacepede, is "aux environs de la rade de Cherbourg," on the 

 Atlantic coast of France. 



Vernacular Names. 



In the books, this species is usually called the Pike-headed Whale or Little Piked Whale. 

 Under the former name Pennant in his British Zoology included both this and the Common 

 Finback, though he himself recognized that some confusion existed. The origin of the name, 

 he says, "is from the shape of its nose, which Dale observes, 'is like that of the Pike fish.'" 

 But the term 'pike' as used by the Scotch fisherfolk, was applied to the high and pointed dorsal 

 fin, whence the name 'piked whales' by which the species of Balaenoptera are sometimes col- 

 lectively designated. It seems originally to have meant the sharply pointed blade of the foot- 

 soldier's pike or heavy thrusting spear of mediaeval days. 'Pike-headed' would thus mean 

 sharp-headed like the conventional spear point. This is the French rendering, and the species 

 is usually called by French writers 'La Balenoptere a museau pointu.' The name 'Little 

 Piked Whale' on the other hand means merely the little whale with a dorsal fin or ' pike.' Simi- 

 larly the terms 'Little Finner' and 'Lesser Rorqual' signify that it is a smaller representative 

 of the Big Finner or Common Finback (or Rorqual). Since the Pollack Whale is also called 

 Lesser Rorqual it is more appropriate that the present species should be designated as Least 

 Rorqual, following True (1898), since it is the smallest of living species of this genus. Among 

 German-speaking people it is called Zwergwal, that is, Dwarf Whale on account of its small 

 size. To the Danes and Norse it is Vaagehval or Bay whale, because of its habit of coming 

 close in near the land among the fiords. The Swedish term Vikarehval or Vikhval has the 

 same significance. Van Beneden says that the people of Norway sometimes speak of it 

 as the Summer Whale, as it is more often seen, in the northern part of that country at least, 

 during the warm season. 



Another colloquial term used by the Norse, is Minkie's Hval (i. e., Minkie's Whale). 

 Millais (1906, p. 279) gives the origin of this. "Minkie was a Norwegian seaman who was 

 always calling 'Hval' at whatever backfin he saw. He is now regarded as the type of the 

 ' tenderfoot ' at sea. Norwegians often refer to any small whale with some contempt or amuse- 

 ment as a 'Minkie' or 'Minkie's hval.'" 



On our own coasts, and in Newfoundland and Labrador it is almost universally called 

 Grampus Whale or merely ' Grampus.' The latter term is more properly applied to the large 

 porpoise, Grampus griseus, though by fishermen generally it is used to denote a cetacean of 

 medium size, which, of course, is more nearly its original meaning, since the word is from the 

 French ' grand poisson ' big fish. Our New England fishermen are wont to consider this 

 small whalebone whale as merely a 'young Finback' though the more observant of them 



