OEDEK OF CETACEA. 85 



Bahvnkhe He recognises five genera, viz., Balwna, Eiibalana, IIiui- 

 terius, Caperia, and Mackayiiis. In Brikeiin the flakes of baleen 

 are thin and polished, with a thick enamel coat and a fine fringe ; 

 in the others the baleen is thick and not polished, and has a thin 

 enamel coat and a coarse thick fringe. Of Balwna three species 

 are recognised, and a fonrth admitted dubiously. TLese are — 

 1. B. ))iijdicetus, the Arctic Eight Whale ; 2. B. himnjenals, which 

 is accepted as extinct by Professors Eschricht and Van Bemden, 

 and of which there is a skeleton in the Museiun of Pampeluna ; 



3. B. mcrginata, the "Western Australian Right Whale, which 

 acording to Dr. Gray, "is undoubtedly a very distinct species;" 



4. (?) B. gibhosa, the alleged Scrag Whale of the Atlantic, which 

 is thus described by Dudley in the PhilosopJiical Tranmctions 

 for 1725 : " Nearly akin to the Fin-back, but instead of a fin upon 

 its back, the ridge of the after-part of its back is scragged with 

 half-a-dozen knobs or knuckles. He is nearest the Right Whale 

 {B. mi/dicetus) in figure and quantitj^ of oil. His bone (whale- 

 bone) is white, but won't split." Cuvier sujDposed that this 8crag 

 Whale Avas merely a Rorqual that had been mutilated ; but 

 Dr. Gray suspects, " from Dudley's account of the former, that it 

 must be a Balcena, probably well-known formerly. Indeed, Beale, 

 in his History of the Sperm Whale, speaks of it as recognised by 

 the whalers now ; but (according to Diefl'enbach) ' Scrags ' is the 

 whalers' name for the j^oung of the Right Whale." Our latest 

 authority, Mr. R. Brown, in his very excellent jjaper On the 

 Cetaceans of the Greenland Seas* remarks, " What the Scrag Whale 

 of Dudley is I cannot imagine. It is not now known to the 

 whalers." He also remarks that "Professors Eschricht and 

 Reinhardt consider that there is a second species of Right Whale 

 found in the Greenland and northern seas, the ' Nord-caper ' 

 {Bahena nord-caper of Bonaterre, B. island tea of Brisson, &c.), the 

 ' Slethag ' of the Icelanders, and that the following facts have been 

 ascertained regarding it : — 1st, that it is much more active than 

 the Greenland Whale, much quicker and more violent in its move- 

 ments, and, accordingly, both more difficidt and dangerous to 

 capture ; 2nd, that it is smaller (it being, however, impossible to 

 give an exact statement of its length), and has much less blubber ; 

 3rd, that its head is shorter, and that its whalebone is compara- 



* Froacdiiigs of the Zoological Society, 1868, p. 347. 



