70 R. BROWN ON THE CETACEA OF GREENLAND. 



1. Bal^na mysticetus, Linn. 



(a) Popular names. — Greenland Whale, Right Whale^ Com- 

 mon Whale (Englisb authors) ; Whale, Whale-fish, and '' Fish " 

 (English whalers). The young are denominated suckers, and are 

 also sometimes known by the following names : — Shortheads (as 

 long as they continue suckling) ; Stunts (two years) ; Skull-fish 

 (after this stage or until they become Size-fish, when the longest 

 splint of whalebone reaches the length of six feet) ; Tue qval ? 

 (Norse) ; Rhetval (Danish) ; Arbek, Argvek, Arbavik, Sokalik 

 (Greenland) ; Akbek, Akbeelik pi. (Eskimo of western shores of 

 Davis Strait) ; I have also heard both the Greenlanders and 

 western Eskimo call it puma, but I cannot learn what is the origin of 

 this word, and suspect it to be whaler, — a corrupted jargon of 

 Scotch, English, Danish, and Eskimo, joined with some words 

 which seem to belong to no language at all, but to have originated 

 in a misconception on either side, and to have retained their 

 place under the notion that each party was speaking the other's 

 language, something of the nature of the Lingua Franca of the 

 Mediterranean, the Pigeon English of China, and the Chinook 

 jargon of North-west America. 



(iS) Descriptive Remarks. — The lower surface of the head is 

 of a cream-colour, with about half a foot of blackish or ash-colour 

 at the tip (or what corresponds in the higher orders of Mammals 

 to the symphysis) of the lower jaw ; further back the colour shades 

 into the general dark blue colour of the body. This colour is 

 generally almost black in adults, but in young ones (or '' suckers ") 

 it is lightish blue ; hence the whalers sometimes call these "blue- 

 skins." The whiskers consist of nine or ten short rows of bristles, 

 the longest bristles anteriorly. There are also a few bristles on 

 the apices of both jaws, and a few hairs stretching all along the 

 side of the head for a few feet backwards. On the tip of the nose 

 are two or three rows of very short white hairs, with fewer hairs 

 in the anterior rows, more in the posterior. I have reason to 

 believe that some of these hairs are deciduous, as I have often 

 found them wanting in old individuals. In older Whales the darker 

 colour of the body impinges on the under surface of the head, 

 leaving the ordinary white of the suckers merely in the form of 

 several irregular blotches, but with two (regular ?) spots, one on 

 each side of the jaw immediately posterior to the eye, composed 

 of a hard cartilaginous material. There is also a little white on 

 the eyelids, and some irregular white markings on the root of the 

 tail. There is likewise a white colour all around the vulva and 

 mammae. Some individuals may be found quite white on the 

 belly, others piebald, and others with white spots on various por- 

 tions of the body not mentioned. The presence or absence of 

 a particular white marking on a specimen of a Cetacean under 

 examination ought by no means to be received (as has been done) 

 as a proof that the species is different, or that because such is 

 mentioned in a former description such description is erroneous, 

 because this is one of the most varying characters possessed by 



