THE RIGHT WHALE OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC. 893 
the Museum, I have examined, and an account of which I now submit to the Society, 
with illustrative figures. The animal was captured in 1910, west of St Kilda. Mr 
HERLOFSON gave every facility for the preservation of the bones, and under the super- 
vision of Mr ArtHur J. Epwarps, one of the assistants in the Museum, they were 
carefully packed and despatched by steamer to be forwarded to Edinburgh. . I have 
also to express my personal indebtedness to Mr Heruorson for presenting through me 
to the Anatomical Museum of the University the skull of an adult male B. biscayensis, 
caught 20 miles north-east of St Kilda in June 1912. The characters of this skull are 
also included in the description of the skull of the complete skeleton. ‘The tympano- 
petrous bones accompanied the skull. 
Sprciric NAME AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
In the preceding section it is stated that the Right Whale frequenting the European 
waters of the North Atlantic was known locally as Nordcaper, Sarda or Sarde, Sletbag, 
and Biscay Whale. Its proper zoological designation should now be considered. The 
name Balena biscayensis was given by EscuricuT and was adopted at the time by 
VAN BENEDEN, FiscHer, GRay, Flower and many other cetologists. In an important 
monograph recently published,* F. W. Trur has revived the name Balena glacialis, 
introduced into cetological literature by Kizmnt and the Abbé Bonnarerre,t and has 
applied it to designate the Nordeaper or B. biscayensis ; in the employment of this 
name he has been followed by Professor Couterr.§ In connection with the term glacialis, 
_ it should be kept in mind that during the eighteenth century the specific distinction 
between the Nordcaper and the Mysticete was imperfectly understood, though it had 
been recognised that the Mysticete frequented the icy seas of Spitzbergen and Greenland, 
whilst the Nordcaper was found in the more temperate waters to the south. FiscHer 
speaks of KLEIN and BoNNATERRE as compilers, and he indeed doubts if they had ever 
seen a whale.|| Ifthe term glacialis is to be retained as the specific name of a Right 
Whale, it would be a more appropriate synonym of the Greenland Right Whale, which 
is a denizen of ice-hound waters; on the other hand, it would be a complete misnomer 
for the Nordcaper, which, to use the words of van BENEDEN, is the Right Whale of the 
Gulf Stream, as it would mislead and give a most erroneous idea of its habitat. 
It was to the patient labours of Escuricut that a scientific demonstration of the 
geographical distribution, external characters, and to some extent the anatomy of the 
Right Whales were put on a sound basis; and so long as a special name is given to the 
Nordeaper or Right Whale of the temperate waters of the North Atlantic, it is due to 
* “The Whalebone Whale of the Western North Atlantic,” Smithsonian Contributions, Washington, 1904. 
+ Historia piscium naturalis, 1740. 
{ Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique: Cetologie, pp. 3 and 4, Paris, 1789. 
§ Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1909. 
|| BonnwatERRE evidently relied on the descriptions by ANDERSON and Horrepows in the*y histories of Iceland 
for an account of the mode of fishing of this whale, though the latter disputed the accuracy of ANDERSON’s statements. 
BoNNATERRE’S specific characters are as follows: “‘Le Nord Caper. J. glacvalis, B. maxiilis subequalibus ; inferiore 
rotunda, in medio latiore ; dorso impinni, albicante.” 
