382 BALiENIDiE. 



It is only of late years that more than one species 

 of Right-Whale has been established as inhabiting the 

 northern seas, and as not one animal of this genus has 

 been recorded as having recently occurred on our coasts, 

 it is left a very doubtful question, which of the two 

 recognized species of Northern Right- Whale is to be 

 recognized as British ? In this difficulty we have thought 

 it best to include both in the present work, but must 

 express the strong conviction that the animals which have 

 occurred in Britain were of the more southern species, 

 B. hiscayensis. Still there is nothing more improbable 

 in the idea that the truly glacial B. mysticetm may have 

 accidentally wandered to our shores, than in the occasional 

 appearance here of such arctic forms as the Narwhal and 

 Beluga. 



The notices of Right- Whales taken in British waters 

 are unsatisfactory in the extreme. Sibbald records what 

 was probably such an animal, and the Tynemouth specimen 

 mentioned by Willughby may have been a true Baleena. 

 In the " Natural History of Yarmouth," by Messrs. C. J. 

 and J. Paget (1834), it is stated of " Balcena mysticetus, 

 the Common Whale," that a small one was taken near 

 that town on the 8th July, 1784, but no remains of this 

 individual have been preserved, nor can any further parti- 

 culars be now ascertained. The Rev. Mr. Barclay says of 

 the same species, in a communication printed in the first 

 edition of our work : — " It is occasionally seen on the 

 coast of Zetland, and several of this species have run 

 aground, or have been found dead at sea. These, however, 

 were very lean, either from injury or disease or from want 

 of food." There is no proof, however, that these refer- 

 ences do not rather apply to some species of Balmnoptera. 

 The labours of HH. Eschricht and Reinhardt have 

 fully established the strictly arctic distribution of the 



