10 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 



scavenger, an eater of injurious animals, a producer of furs and food for man. 

 It may be safely classed as a useful animal whose overabundance in populous 

 ■districts may be easily checked by the trapper's arts. 



Order Cetacea; Whales and Dolphins. 

 Family BalaenidjE ; Whalebone or Baleen Whales. 

 Genus Balaena Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, 1758, Vol. I, p. 75. 

 Black Right Whale. Balmna gladalis Bonnaterre. 



1789. Balana glacialis Bonnaterre, Tableau Encycl. and Method, des 

 Trois Regnes de la Nature, Cetologie, p. 3. • 



Type locality. — Near the coasts of Norway and Iceland. 



Faunal distribution. — North Atlantic Ocean. 



Distribution in Pa. and N.J. — Rare along the New Jersey coast in winter ; 

 sometimes ascending Delaware and New York Bays. 



Habits, etc. — Once abundant in the north Atlantic and nearing extinction, 

 "but now increasing in numbers. — Holder, 1883. The baleen or sieve-like 

 bristles within the mouth separate the minute crustaceans and pteropods 

 which swarm in immense shoals where it feeds. To secure these it takes a 

 mouthful of water and in the act of closing it and ejecting the water the 

 taleen project from the palate automatically and close together in front of the 

 ejected water, straining out and retaining any food which it contains. True 

 says (Cat. Aquat. Mam. U. S. N. M., Ind. Fish Exhib., 1884, p. 13^) that 

 this species " is believed to have been the object of very considerable fishery 

 in early colonial times, but has disappeared entirely for many years." 



Records in Pa. and N. J.: 



"They were formerly abundant about the mouth of the Delaware river. 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 tiie Dela- 

 ware river since that time, and two of great size are recorded to have been 

 seen on the coast of Maryland." — Cope, Proc. A. N. Sci., Phila., 1865, p. 

 168. The type specimen of Cope's Balaena cisarctica^noyi considered a 

 synonym oi B. glacialis, was taken in 1862 in the river opposite Philadelphia. 

 Its skeleton is now mounted in the museum of the Academy of Natural Sci- 

 ences of Philadelphia. See Proceeeings of the Academy above cited. — 

 Rhoads, 1902. 



New York Bay. — "Some are known to enter New York Harbor." — 

 Cope, 1. c. 



A specimen, apparently of this species, is in the Rutgers College Museum, 



