280 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXIV, 



bibliography of the Cetacea and Sirenia was undertaken, to cover the period from 

 Albertus Magnus to the end of the year 1880. The first third, extending from 1495 

 to the end of the year 1840, and comprising about one thousand titles, was pub- 

 lished in 1882 *; the rest (more than two thousand titles, comprising the most impor- 

 tant part from the systematic standpoint) remains still in manuscript. The prepara- 

 tion of the text of the monograph (on the same general plan as the author's previously 

 published volume on the Pinnipedia 2 ) was well advanced, several species of the 

 Baleen or Whalebone Whales being practically completed. Twelve quarto plates, 

 relating to the osteology of the Baleen Whales, had been lithographed from drawings 

 carefully made under the author's supervision by Mr. James Henry Blake of Cam- 

 bridge, Mass. At this point the work was suddenly interrupted by the author's 

 serious illness, resulting in a prolonged period of invalidism. During this interval 

 the "Hayden Survey" ceased to exist, and the reorganized Geological Survey, made 

 no provision for the completion of the unfinished zoological work begun under the 

 Hayden Survey. Later other interests engaged the author's attention, and noth- 

 ing further was done on the proposed monograph of the Cetacea and Sirenia. v 



In the meantime several important contributions 3 have been made to the history 

 of the North American Cetacea, relating especially to the field covered by the nearly 

 completed portions of my monograph as left in 1882. Yet my work of 1882 has been 

 only in part duplicated. 



The recent acquisition by this Museum of considerable cetological material has 

 led me to examine this long-stored manuscript and its illustrations, and the present 

 article is primarily based thereon, with such revision and additions as the lapse of 

 more than a quarter of a century has rendered necessary. It is published in the 

 present connection with the approval of the Secretary of the United States De- 

 partment of the Interior, under the auspices of which it was originally undertaken. 



II. HISTORICAL. 



Although the earliest references to the North Atlantic Right Whale 

 are somewhat vague, its history can unquestionably be traced back to the 

 ninth and tenth centuries, at which period it is known to have been the 

 basis of whale-fisheries prosecuted by the Basques and Norwegians. Ac- 

 cording to Markham's researches, 4 the Basque whale-fishery "was a well 

 established trade in the twelfth century; so that," he concludes, "it probably 

 existed at least two centuries earlier." He found that -as early as 1150 

 whalebone was one of the articles of merchandise subject to warehouse 

 duties at San Sebastian; and that in 1203,' 1204, and 1237, the same regu- 



1 Preliminary List of Works and Papers relating to the Mammalian Orders Cete and Sirenia. 

 By Joel Asaph Allen. Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Survey of the Territories (Hayden), Vol. 

 Vl, No. 3, pp. 399-562. Published August 30, 1882. 1013 titles, 1495-1840. 



2 History of North American Pinnipeds, a Monograph of the Walruses, Sea- Lions, Sea-Bears, 

 and Seals of North America. U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Survey of the Territories (Hayden). Misc. 

 Publ. No. 12, 1880, 8vo, pp. xvi + 785. 



3 Especially Dr. J. B. Holder's paper on the Right Whale of the North Atlantic, published 

 in the first volume of this 'Bulletin,' and Frederick W. True's the 'Whalebone Whales of the 

 Western North Atlantic,' published in 1904. 



4 On the Whale-Fishery of the Basque Provinces of Spain. By Clements R. Markham. 

 Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1881, pp. 969-976. 



