120 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.— 1915. 



II. Nomenclature. 



1 am indebted to Mr. D. G. Lillie for drawing my attention to the 

 claims for precedence of the nomenchiture which True has worked out. 

 The latter has published his authority for its use in the ' Proceedings 

 of the United States Natural History Museum. ' ^ 



The following extract from True was made by Mr. Lillie : 



' BalcBva musculus. 



' Linnaeus' description vague. He refers to two other authors who 

 refer to Sibbald's description of what is pretty certainly .the "Blue 

 Whale. ' ' Hence Linnaeus must ha,ve meant Balcsyia musculus to denote 

 the " Blue Whale. " Hence (the Blue Whale is) Balcenoftera musculus 

 Linn. 

 ' Balcena pliysalus. 



' Linnaeus' description vague. But he refers to Martins, whose 

 account pretty certainly refers to the Common Rorqual. Hence 

 Balanoptera pMjsalus for this whale. 



' Balczna hoops. 



' Lmn^us refers to Sibbald's description of what is very evidently 

 an immature specimen of the Common Eorqual and (this name) is 

 hence synonymous with Balcena pliysalus. 

 ' Megaptera nodosa Bonnaterre. 



' The American Humpbacks were named before the European ones, 

 so the names Balcena hoops Fabricius, 1780, and Balcsna nodosa Bonna- 

 terre take precedence of Bal(sna longimana Rudolphi, 1829. 



' But Balcena hoops has been used by Linnaeus as a synonym for 

 Balcena physalus, therefore Megaptera nodosa should hold the field 

 on priority grounds.' 



In accordance with the above, I have adopted True's nomenclature 

 throughout this Eeport. I therefore append a table giving this nomen- 

 clature with the synonyms which have been used by BurfieW and 

 myself^ in previous reports: 



B.A. Reports 1912 and 1914. True. 



Balcenoptera musculus L. = Bcdmnoptera physalus L. 



Common Rorqual, Fin Whale. 

 BalcBnoptera sibbaldii Gray = Balmnoptera musculus L. 



Blue Whale. 

 Megaptera longimana Rudolphi = Megaptera nodosa Bonnaterre. 

 Humpback. 



III. Nmnhers and Species taken in 1914. 

 The total number of whales captured in 1914 was eighty-six, and 

 included four species. The relative numbers were as follow : 



Fin Whales (B. physalus L.) 67 



Blue Whales (B. musculus L.) 13 



Sejhvals (B. horealis Lesson) 2 



Sperm Whales (Ph. macrocephalus L.) 4 



Total 86 



' ' On the Nomenclature of the Whalebone Whales of the 10th ed. Linn. 

 Syst. Nat.; op. cit. vol. xxi. p. 617, 1898. 



" British Association Report 1912, ' Report on Belmullet Whaling htation. 

 ' British Association Report 1914, ' Eeport on Belmullet Whaling Station.' 



