278 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXIV r 



economic products oil and whalebone added greatly for many centuries 

 to the comfort and welfare of the civilized world. Its pursuit served as a 

 training school for seamen, since its capture required skill, courage, and 

 endurance, and entailed much hardship and personal risk. Its history is- 

 thus interwoven with the seafaring annals of the maritime nations of Europe 

 from the tenth to the end of the seventeenth century, and with those of this 

 country from the earliest settlement of the Atlantic coast to near the close 

 of the eighteenth century, when incessant pursuit had accomplished its 

 commercial extinction. It was not, however, till nearly a hundred years 

 later that specimens of the animal were available to naturalists for exami- 

 nation, and it received proper recognition in modern zoology. From the 

 standpoint of to-day it is possible to trace its history for nearly a thousand 

 years, but exact knowledge of its distinctive characteristics and relationships- 

 is of recent date. 



The literature relating to its history is exceptionally voluminous, but 

 prior to 1860 is mostly of a commercial and more or less statistical character; 

 there are, however, from the earliest times, references to its habits, external 

 characters, and places of occurrence, and its gradual extirpation as a species- 

 of economic importance is easily traced. Its zoological status was first 

 announced by the Danish naturalist Eschricht in 1860, from examination 

 of a specimen captured at San Sebastian, Spain, but the death of this author 

 soon after prevented his making known the details of its structure, which 

 were first briefly indicated by Cope, in 1865, from a specimen taken in 

 Delaware Bay. From these dates began its modern technical history, the 

 bibliography of which numbers scores of titles. In the following pages an 

 attempt is made to summarize this voluminous literature, relating to an 

 almost extinct member of our New York fauna. 



The North Atlantic Right Whale is at present represented in the museums- 

 of Europe by only three skeletons, all taken in European waters, and all 

 representing more or less immature individuals. In this country it is repre- 

 sented by skeletons in several of the principal museums, all taken during the 

 last fifty years, at various points on the Atlantic coast of the United States, 

 from Cape Cod to Charleston. The mounted specimen in this Museum 

 was one of the first to be installed for exhibition, and the first to be figured 

 and described in detail. 1 Last year the Museum collection was further 

 enriched by two others captured on the southern coast of Long Island. 2 



The early history of the North Atlantic Right Whale, at least in outline, 

 is an oft-told tale. It was first disentangled from that of other species by 



i By the late Dr. J. B. Holder, then Curator of Zoology, in the first volume of the Museum 

 Bulletin,' in 1883. 



2 Since the above was written the younger of these two specimens has been sent to the 

 University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, England, in exchange for other material. 



