1908.] Ml<n, Tin \<>rlh Atlantic Right Whale. 295 



on the coast of North America, as it ought to be according to Van Beneden' s 

 chart. The only reliable account of the Whale of that coast is to be found 

 in Dudley's paper in the 'Philosophical Transactions' (xxxiii, p. 258), who 

 says the 'Scrag-Whale' (B. gibbosa, Erxleben) has white whalebone, 'that 

 won't split/ which seems to show that it was a true Balcena, which is 

 separated from Eubalama on account of the toughness, flexibility, and 

 unsplitability of its whalebone; and, indeed, Dudley says the Scrag-Whale 

 'is nearest the Right Whale (B. mysticetus) in figure and quantity of oil/" 

 It seems unaccountable that Gray should in this connection ignore alto- 

 gether the Right Whale Dudley described 1 as the Right Whale of the 

 New England coast and take up his "Scrag-Whale" for comparison in the 

 present connection a species which has never been satisfactorily identified, 

 and is not now recognized as a valid species. 2 But Gray's reasoning from 

 such false premises need not be further followed. He further quotes from 

 Cope to the effect that Cope's Balcena cisarctica has the first rib "single- 

 headed," and that this species is therefore referable to his genus Eubalcena, 

 while B. biscayensis is not thus referable. 



At about this date appeared Van Beneden's account of Balcena biscayensis 

 in Van Beneden and Gervais's notable work, the ' Osteographie des Ce"teces/ 3 

 in which he gave a resume of its early history, derived mainly from Eschricht 

 and Reinhardt's 'Om Nordhvalen/ and referred to the San Sebastian whale 

 and Cope's Balcena cisarctica, which latter he believed to be identical with 

 the so-called Balcena biscayensis. He adds little that is new, beyond a 

 description and figure of a tympanic bone of B. cisarctica, loaned him by 

 Cope. Various subfossil remains of Right W T hales, which he also figures, 

 he considers referable to B. biscayensis. These are (1) two lumbar verte- 

 brae from the coast of Ostende; (2) a mass of cervical vertebrae from the 

 Lyme Regis of England; (3) another mass of cervical vertebrae from the 

 isle of Sainte-Marguerite, figured and described by Lacepede as those of a 

 Rorqual (Balcenoptera) and later determined by Cuvier to be those of some 

 species of Balcena ; (4) a fragment of a rib unearthed at Fumes. 



In 1870, Dr. Gray published a review of this work, under the title, 

 "Observations on the Whales described in the ' Osteographie des CetaceV 

 of MM. Van Beneden and Gervais," 4 in which he criticised the general 



1 See antea, pp. 284, 285, where Dudley's account is given in full. 



2 The name Scrag Whale appears to have been long current among whalemen for a whale 

 occurring on the eastern coast of the United States. The first original reference to the species, 

 after Dudley's, appears to be that furnished me in 1869 by the Hon. N. E. Atwood of Province- 

 town, Mass., an experienced whaleman and naturalist, for my 'Catalogue of the Mammals of 

 Massachusetts' (Bull. Mus Comp. Zool., I. 1869, p. 203). He says: "A species of whale 

 known by this name [Scrag Whale], nearly allied to if not identical with the right whale, is 

 sometimes taken here. . . . The most prominent feature is that on its dorsal ridge, near the 

 tail, there are a number of small projections or bunches, having some resemblance to the 

 teeth of a saw. It has no dorsal fin or hump on its back." He further speaks of it as " rare." 



3 Livr. 4, 1868, pp. 90-110, pi. vii. 



* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th set., VI, Sept. 1870, pp. 193-204. 



