244 Di-. J. E. Gray on the Geographical 



diiFerent from, and not, as M. Van Beneden supposes, the same 

 as B. mysticetus. 



3. Bakena hiscayensis is only known from the skeleton of a 

 young specimen taken at St. Sebastian, in the Bay of Biscay, 

 now in the Museum at Copenhagen. Mr. Flower informs me 

 that this skeleton belongs to mj genus Guvierius^ which has 

 brittle whalebone, with a large coarse fringe (which easily splits 

 into strips), and a bifid first rib. It is very doubtful if this is 

 the Whale found on the coast of North America, as it ought to be 

 according to M.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, gibhosa, Erxleben) has white whalebone,, 

 " that won't split," which seems to showthat it was a ixu&BaJcenaj 

 which is separated fi'om Etihalrena on account of the toughness, 

 flexibility, and unsplittability of its whalebone ; and, indeed, 

 Dudley says the Scrag- Whale " is nearest the Eight Wliale {B, 

 mysticetus) in figure and quantity of oil." This does not prove 

 that B. hiscayensis does not inhabit the coast of North America ; 

 but it goes far to show that a species very like B. mysticetus does ; 

 and M. Van Beneden does not note this fact, though he places 

 without doubt the geographical range of B. hiscayensis as ex- 

 tending to that country, for which there is not a particle of 

 evidence. It may be observed that Capt. Maury's ' Whale- 

 Charts ^ do not offer any confirmation of Prof. Van Beneden 's 

 distribution of this species of Eight Whale : they are very rare 

 in the North Atlantic and off the coast of North America ; a few 

 have been observed in the midchannel between Morocco and 

 North America, but they were probably animals accidentally 

 carried out of their com-se. 



Professor E, D. Cope, of Haverford College, United States, 

 described the " Black Whale " of the whalers of the east 

 coast of the United States, from a nearly complete skeleton 

 in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Phila- 

 delphia, under the name of Balcena (Euhalama) cisarctica 

 (Jom-n. Acad. Nat. Science, Philad. 1865). This may be 

 the same as B. nodosa ; but it is certainly not the Balcena 

 [Hunterius) hiscayensis ; for it has " fourteen pairs of ribs, the 

 anterior single-headed," and therefore is a true Euhalcena. 

 Prof. Cope says, " Individuals are occasionally cast ashore 

 eastward, and some are known to enter New- York harbour. 

 They were formerly abundant about the mouth of the Delaware: 

 a letter of William Penn, dated 1683, states that eleven were 

 taken that year about the capes. Five specimens are stated 

 to have been seen in the Delaware Eiver since that time ; 

 and ten of great size are recorded to have been found on the 



