FLOWEK. — ARCTIC CETACEA. 41 



ii dorsal fin. This is by far the most important of the Northern 

 Cetacea to man, being the animal which yields train oil and whale- 

 bone in greatest quantity and finest quality. It appears to have 

 a regular seasonal migi'ation, wintering in the southern portions of 

 Davis Straits, Hudson Strait, and the coast of Labrador, though 

 never coming farther south, but the extent of its northern range 

 in the summer yet remains to be ascertained. For full accounts of 

 its habits and geographical distribution, see the works of Martens, 

 Zorgdrajer,and Scoresby ; R. Brown, " Notes on the History and 

 " Geographical Relations of the Cetacea frequenting Davis Strait 

 " and Baffin's Bay," Proc. Zool. Soc, 1868, p. 533 ; and especially 

 the elaborate monograph by Eschricht and Reinhardt " On the 

 " Greenland Right-Whale {Balcena mysticetus)^' translated 

 from the Danish in " Recent Memoirs on the Cetacea," Ray 

 Society, 1866. 



A really good drawing of an adult Greenland Whale is still a 

 desideratum, also accurate statements as to the size it attains. 

 There is no evidence from specimens in any of the European 

 museums that it exceeds 55 feet in length (in a straight line), but 

 voyagers generally give much larger dimensions. 



A Right Whale, with a smaller head and shorter whalebone 

 {Balcena biscayensis), was formerly abundant in the temperate 

 portions of the North Atlantic, but is now nearly extinct. Any 

 information about the species would be extremely valuable. Is it 

 identical with the American Black Whale (^B. cisarctica, Cope) ? 



See Eschricht and Reinhardt, op, cit. Van Beneden and Gervais, 

 *' Osteographie des Cetaces." Fischer, '* Documents pour servir 

 *' a I'histoire de la Baleine des Basques {Balcena biscuyensis),'' 

 Annales des Sciences Nat., 1871. 



AH the remaining Whalebone Whales of the Northern seas have 

 a small dorsal fin, and the skin of the throat and breast marked 

 with deep longitudinal furrows. 



Megaptera boops (O. Fabricius) = il/. longimana (Rudolphi). 

 Hump-backed Whale, Keporkak or Krepokak of the Greenlanders, 

 German Buckehcall. Known externally from the true Rorquals by 

 the low and obtuse dorsal fin, and especially by the great size of 

 the pectoral fins, which are more than one-fourth of the entire 

 length of the animal (from 45 to 50 feet). Colour black above, 

 and black and white below in streaks and patches ; the pectoral 

 fins wholly white, baleen black. As far as is known at present 

 there is but one species of Megaptera in the Northern seas, which 

 has a far more extensive range than the Greenland Right- Whale, 

 passing in the winter as far south as Bermuda, and in the 

 summer up to the Greenland coast (66° North). For the fullest 

 account of this species, see D. F. Eschricht, " Untersuchungen 

 " liber die Nordisehen Wallthiere" (1849), which extremely valu - 

 able work contains an exhaustive bibliography of the Northern 

 Cetacea up to date of publication. 



Genus Balcenoptera. The Rorquals, or Fin Whales, are known 

 from the last by the pectoral fin not exceeding one-sixth of tlie 

 length of the animal, and by the falcate form of the dorsal fin. 

 Four Northern species are now generally recognised. 



3G122. d 



