(1908). Gray and Allen were two of the most notorious 

 generic "splitters" in the history of mammalogy (cf. 

 Simpson 1961:139). The differences between the two 

 species are no greater than those separating, e.g., the 

 various species of Balaenoptera. 



Balaena glacialis Miiller, 1776 (right whale; black 



right whale). 

 Temperate waters of the North Atlantic, the North 

 Pacific, and the Southern Hemisphere. The 

 southern populations are distinguishable as a 

 separate subspecies (or species, according to some 

 authors), B. g. australis Desmoulins, 1822, from B. 

 g. glacialis of the North Atlantic (Muller 1954); 

 North Pacific populations are apparently identical 

 to those of the North Atlantic (Omura et al. 1969). 



Balaena mysticetus Linnaeus, 1758 (bowhead whale; 



Arctic right whale). 

 Arctic waters. There are four geographically isolated 

 populations: 1) From Spitzbergen west to east 

 Greenland; 2) in Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, James 

 Bay, and adjacent waters; 3) in the Bering, Chuk- 

 chi, and Beaufort seas; and 4) in the Okhotsk Sea. 

 The Alaskan Eskimo recognize two kinds: the larger 

 "kairalik" or true bowhead, and the smaller 

 "ingotok" (known as the "poggy" to the 19th cen- 

 tury American whalers). I believe that the ingotok is 

 most likely a young bowhead. 



Genus CAPEREA Gray, 1864 



Caperea marginata (Gray, 1846) (pygmy right whale). 

 Temperate waters of Southern Ocean; known mostly 

 from strandings on New Zealand, Australia, South 

 America, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa. 



Order ODONTOCETI 



In recent years, several new family classifications of 

 the odontocetes have been proposed (Fraser and Purves 

 1960; Nishiwaki 1963; Kasuya 1973). I believe that insuf- 

 ficient evidence has been published to support the validi- 

 ty of these classifications and that much more study is 

 needed before any changes will be generally accepted. I 

 therefore follow tradition in regarding the living odon- 

 tocetes as divisible into five families. 



Family PLATANISTIDAE 



This family includes three well-marked subfamilies 

 (which are sometimes accorded family rank): Platanis- 

 tinae (Platanista), Iniinae (Inia, Lipotes), and Pon- 

 toporiinae (Pontoporia). 



Genus INIA d'Orbigny, 1834 



Inia geoffrensis (de Blainville, 1817) (bouto; Amazon 

 dolphin). 



Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America. Inia 

 g. boliviensis d'Orbigny, 1834, of the upper Madeira 

 River system in Bolivia differs considerably from /. 

 g. geoffrensis in the remainder of the Amazon basin 

 and may be a distinct species (van Bree and 

 Robineau 1973; van Bree, pers. commun.). The pop- 

 ulation in the Orinoco basin may also be sub- 

 specifically distinct. 



Genus LIPOTES Miller, 1918 



Lipotes vexillifer Miller, 1918 (pei c'hi; whitefin dol- 

 phin). 



Lower Yangtze River from its mouth (Shanghai) up- 

 stream to Tung-t'ing Hu (Lake) and its tributaries. 

 The English name "whiteflag" dolphin is based on 

 an erroneous interpretation of the Chinese (M. 

 Nishiwaki, pers. commun.). 



Genus PONTOPORIA Gray, 1846 



Pontoporia blainvillei (Gervais and d'Orbigny, 1844) 



(franciscana; La Plata dolphin). 

 Coastal waters and estuaries of eastern South Amer- 

 ica, from Baia de Santos, Brazil, to Golfo San Ma- 

 fias, Argentina. 



Genus PLATANISTA Wagler, 1830 



The two allopatric forms of this genus are regarded as 

 subspecifically distinct by Kasuya (1972) and as 

 specifically distinct by Pilleri and Gihr (1971). I ten- 

 tatively list them as separate species on the advice of van 

 Bree (pers. commun.). 



Platanista gangetica (Roxburgh, 1801) (Ganges susu; 

 Ganges dolphin). 

 Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna river system of In- 

 dia, Bangladesh, and Nepal, from tidal limits to the 

 foothills. It is presumably this species that formerly 

 occurred in the Karnaphuli River. 

 Plantanista minor Owen, 1853 (Indus susu; Indus dol- 

 phin). 



Indus River system of Pakistan and India, from tidal 

 limits to the foothills. (Most authors have used the 

 name P. indi Blyth, 1859, but Owen's name has 

 priority.) 

 Family DELPHINIDAE 



Basic references on the classification of the Del- 

 phinidae are Flower (1883) and True (1889). The true 

 porpoises (Phocoena, Neophocaena, and Phocoenoides) 

 constitute a well-marked group that is sometimes ac- 

 corded family rank (Phocoenidae). The remainder of the 

 family has been variously subdivided or divided. 

 Genus STENO Gray, 1846 



Steno bredanensis (Lesson, 1828) (rough-toothed dol- 

 phin.) 

 All tropical and warm temperate seas. 



