1908.] Allen, The North Atlantic Right Whale. 293 



ern seas. He failed, however, to designate it technically, which was first 

 done by Gray, who simply gave to Eschricht's vernacular designation a 

 Latin rendering. Yet, from 1864 down to the present time, the name Ba- 

 Icena biscayensis has, with the exception of a single author (E. D. Cope, as 

 will be noted later), been universally ascribed to Eschricht, who never even 

 used it. In fact, it was not proposed till after Eschricht's death, which 

 occurred February 22, 1863. 



Balcena cisarctica COPE. The Bal&na cisarctica was described by Prof . 

 E. D. Cope in 1865, 1 from a specimen taken in Delaware Bay, opposite the 

 city of Philadelphia, three years previously. Professor Cope refers to it as 

 "a half grown individual," the skeleton of which, without the intervertebral 

 cartilages, had a length of ''thirty-one and a half feet," and gives a brief 

 account of its leading osteological features. He says of it: "This species 

 may readily occur on the European coasts, and is, no doubt, allied to, or the 

 same as, the species pursued by the Biscay whalers, which Eschricht says 

 is related to the australis. This does not appear to have been described, 

 though catalogued without reference by Gray and Flower, under the name 

 biscayensis. The species above described may be called Balsena cisarctica; 

 its skeleton will be more fully illustrated in a future publication." He says 

 further that it is the "Black Whale" of the whalers of the eastern coast of 

 the United States. 



Its identity with the so-called B. biscayensis has always been accepted 

 by all leading writers on the Cetacea, except Gray and Fischer. Later 

 investigation has shown that there is no reason for doubting that Cope's 

 assumption that they are specifically the same was well founded. Indeed, 

 his reason for calling it Balcena cisarctica was the fact that he evidently 

 considered the earlier name, Balcena biscayensis, as practically a nomen 

 nudum, and not that he considered this earlier name to represent a different 

 species. He also, it should be noted, correctly attributed the name to Gray 

 instead of to Eschricht, to whom, as already stated, all other writers have 

 invariably ascribed it. 



Eschricht, Gray, and Van Beneden, 18611871. Three prominent names 

 dominated the literature of cetology during a large part of the middle of the 

 nineteenth century D. F. Eschricht of Copenhagen, John Edward Gray 

 of the British Museum, and J. P. Van Beneden of Belgium so far at least 

 as the present species, the so-called Balcena biscayensis "Eschricht," is 

 concerned. Its type is the specimen captured in the harbor of San Sebastian, 



1 Note on a Species of Whale occurring on the Coasts of the United States. Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1865, pp. 168, 169. There is also a further reference to the species, op. 

 cit., pp. 180, 181. This and other papers on North American Cetacea were republished in 1866, 

 under the title 'Contribution to the History of the Cetacea, especially of the Eastern American 

 Coasts,' Philadelphia, 1866, pp. 1-15, in which the description of the present species occurs at 

 pp. 1-3. 



