1908.] Allen, The North Atlantic Right Whale. 289 



then known, with brevity and precision, as follows: "Elle ressemble par sa 

 figure a la precedente ["la Baleine ordinaire de Greenland"]: elle en differe 

 seulement parce qu'elle a la tete & les lames de corne, qui garnissent la 

 machoire superieure, beaucoup plus petites, & le corps plus mince. Sa 

 peau est lisse, & d'un noir que tire un peu sur le blanchatre. Elle se nourrit 

 de Harengs. On la trouve sur les c6tes de Norwege & d'Islande" (op. cit., 

 pp. 350, 351). 



By Linne, Gmelin, Erxleben, Donndorf, and most other -systematists 

 of the eighteenth century, the Nordkaper is either treated as identical w r ith 

 the Greenland Whale or as merely a variety of it, or else (as in the case of 

 Erxleben) as a species not satisfactorily determined. 



Bonnaterre, however, in his 'Cetologie,' published in 1789, again gave 

 it full specific rank, adopting for it the not very appropriate name Balcena 

 glacialis. He cites as authorities Anderson, Brisson, Horrebow, and Klein. 

 The characters given are, however, substantially those mentioned by Brisson. 

 He adds that "il est tres-dangereux de harponner cet animal, a cause de 

 son extreme agilite." We have here set forth all the traits and characters 

 of the animal as it was kno\vn prior to the middle of the nineteenth century, 

 except that its habitat is given merely as the "mers du Nord, pres des c6tes 

 de Norwege & d'Islande." It is properly introduced under a binomial 

 Latin designation, appropriate enough as its habitat w r as then understood. 

 It, however, only visits its northern habitat during its summer migration, 

 and is not, strictly speaking, an animal of the glacial seas to the extent the 

 name glacialis might be supposed to imply. 



Lacepede, in 1804, retained * it as a species under the name Balcena 

 nordcaper and gave supposed figures of it, after drawings by Bachstrom, 

 but which, as Eschricht and Reinhardt believe, really relate to Balcpna 

 mysticetus (see antea, p. 287). The characters given are derived from pre- 

 ceding authors, and his account (aside from the figures) relates to the true 

 Nordkaper. 



As already detailed in the words of Eschricht and Reinhardt (see antea, 

 p. 287), Cuvier rejected the species altogether in his memoir 'Sur la determi- 

 nation des diverses especes de Baleines vivantes/ 2 influenced apparently 

 by the theory that the Greenland Whale formerly ranged far to the south- 

 ward and had been driven to seek safety from the persecutions of whalers 

 in the icy seas of the north, and by Scoresby's opinion that the Nordkaper 

 did not exist as a species distinct from the Greenland Whale. Cuvier' s 

 well-known rigid criticisms of the literature of cetology led him into error 

 in other cases as well as in this, he rejecting species that were not based on 



1 Hist. nat. des Cetac6es, pp. 103-110, pll. ii, iii. 



2 Ann. des Sci. nat., II, 1824, pp. 27-41; Ossem. foss., V, 1823, pp. 359-388. 



[April 1908.] 19 



