84 E. BROWN ON THE CETACEA OF GREENLAND. 



is probably also the KepokarnaTi of the Greeolanders, and the 

 Stei/pireythr of the Icelanders.* 



It visits the coast of Greenland only in the summer months, 

 from March to November ; and its range may be given as the same 

 as the last. Like the former, it is rarely killed by the natives. 



4. Bal^noptera rostrate, O. Fab. 



Popular names. — Little Finner, Pike Whale (English whalers 

 and authors) ; Waagehval (Norse) ; Tihagulik (Greenlanders) ; 

 Tschikagleuch (Kamschatkdales) ; Seigval or Seival (Finns). 



This Whale only comes in the summer months to Davis Strait 

 and Baffin's Bay, or very seldom during the winter to the southern 

 portion of Greenland. It is not killed by the natives ; and its 

 range is that of its congeners. The natives of the western shores 

 of Davis Strait seldom recognize the figure of this and allied 

 species of Whales, though the Greenlanders instantly did so.f 



5. Megaptera longijiana, Gray. 



Balcenoptera hoops, O. Fab. Faun. Grocnl. p. 36 (non Linn.?). 



Popular names. — Humpback (English whalers) ; Rorqval^ Stor 

 Rorhval (Norse) ; Puckelhval (Swedes) ; Keporkak (Green- 

 landers and Danes in Greenland). 



This Whale is only found on the Greenland coast in the summer 

 months. For many years it has been regularly caught at the 

 Settlement of Frederikshaab, in South Greenland. In North 

 Greenland it is not much troubled. Whilst dredging in the har- 

 bour of Egedesminde one snowy June day, I saw a large Keporkak 

 swim into the bay ; but though there were plenty of boats at the 

 Settlement, and the natives were very short of food, yet they stood 

 on the shore staring at it without attempting to kill it. The 

 natives of this Settlement are no doubt the poorest hunters and 

 fishers in all North Greenland (if we except Godhavn, the next 

 most civilized place) ; but there were at that time at the Settle- 

 ment natives from outlying places. Capt. John Walker, in the 

 *' Jane " of Bo'ness, one year in default of better game, killed 

 fifteen Humpbacks in Disco Bay. He got blubber from them 

 sufficient, according to ordinary calculation, to yield seventy tuns 

 of oil ; but on coming home it only yielded eighteen. The '* bone " 

 is short and of little value. Though one of the most common 

 Whales on the Greenland coast, yet, on this account and being 

 difficult to capture, it is rarely troubled. 



6. Catodon macrocephalus, Lacep. 



Physeter macrocephalus^ Linn. Syst. N . i. p. 107 ; O. Fab. 

 Fauna Groenl. p. 41. 



* riower, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1804 ; Turner, Trans. Koy. Soc. Edin., vol. 

 xxvi. 



f In a Greenland skeleton at Copenhagen, the lateral processes of the fifth 

 and sixth cervical vertebrae are united, which is not the case with one from. 

 Norway. We cannot be too cautious in separating species on such distinctions. 



