1908.] AU-cn, The North Atlantic Right Whale. 309 



pre-Linnsean, their names are not open to consideration. Bonnaterre, in 

 1789, named it Balcena ylaciaUs\ his name, based on the Nordkaper of 

 previous authors, is shown by his description and references to be clearly 

 applicable to the present species. Lacepede, in 1804, renamed it Balcena 

 nordcaper, with primarily the same basis. Many years later (1864), J. E. 

 Gray applied the name Balcena biscayensis to the San Sebastian specimen, 

 apparently inadvertently, through giving a Latin rendering of Eschricht's 

 'Baleine de Basques/ since he ascribed it to-Eschricht, and the species has 

 passed, as already shown at length (aniea, p. 291), into literature as (( Balcena 

 biscayensis Eschricht." The following year, Cope described an American 

 specimen of what is considered to be the same species under the name 

 Baloena cisarctica, in the belief that B. biscayensis had not been properly 

 founded. In 1877, another synonym, Balcena tarentina, was added by 

 Capellini, on the basis of a straggler taken in the Bay of Taranto in the 

 Mediterranean. Other late names have been based on fossil fragments 

 believed to be also referable to the same species. These, owing to their 

 late origin, do not require consideration , as possible substitutes for B. 

 ylacialis Lacepede. 



In this connection it is necessary to consider briefly the question of the 

 possible specific distinctness of the Right Whales of the two sides of the 

 North Atlantic. Unfortunately the skeletons of only three specimens from 

 the European coasts have ever been secured, all young animals (the Ice- 

 land specimens are of course not pertinent), and no American example has 

 been available in Europe for direct comparison with any of them. It has 

 been generally conceded, however, for many years that no satisfactory 

 differences are apparent on which it is safe to separate specifically the Ameri- 

 can and European examples. Mr. True, in his 'Whalebone Whales of the 

 Western North Atlantic/ published in 1904, has most carefully brought 

 together all available data bearing on this question, which he has presented 

 and discussed with great fairness. His conclusions confirm those of pre- 

 vious investigators, and for the present there seems to be no alternative 

 but to give them full acceptance, namely, that "there is at present. . . .no 

 valid reason for separating the American from the European specimens as 

 distinct species" (/. c., p. 262). To him also belongs the credit of reviving 

 the name Balcena glacialis of Bonnaterre as the correct name for the species. 1 



From this point of view the synonymy and principal references to this 

 species may be given as follows: 



1 I had reached the same conclusion in 1881, as shown by the following transcript of the 

 closing lines of my discussion of the nomenclature of the species: "If the practice of substituting 

 the earliest names that can be identified in the light of present knowledge for others of later date 

 that have become familiar through long use, now so rife, is to be followed, there is no question as 

 to the tenability of Bonnaterre's name, which, sooner or later, some one will revive, in view of 

 which we reluctantly now adopt it." .17 N 



