MAMMALS OF MARYLAND 



179 



Type locality. — European seas. 



General distribution. — Adults of this species apparently winter in tropical or 

 warm temperate waters, and summer in cold temperate and boreal waters. 

 Young animals, however, may frequent warm or temperate waters during the 

 summer months. In the western North Atlantic, adults have been reported during 

 the summer from Iceland and Greenland south to New Jersey and the Delaware 

 Kiver. There are records of this species in Florida waters during winter months, 

 (see Schwartz, 1962, pp. 206-209). 



Description. — ^The little piked whale resembles a small fin-backed 

 whale in appearance, but is of somewhat stouter build. Adults reach 

 a length of about 30 feet. There are approximately 50 ventral grooves 

 in the throat region, and the baleen is entirely yellowish white in color. 

 The body is blue-gray on the back and white on the abdomen. 



Maryland records. — ^This species has been recorded from Maryland 

 only once. On 12 July 1959, an immature female stranded at Dares 

 Beach, Calvert County, in Chesapeake Bay. Schwartz (1962) dis- 

 cusses this specimen and its stranding in detail. 



FIN-BACKED WHALE 

 Balaenoptera physalus (Linnaeus) 



\Balaen/i\ physalus Linnaeus, Systema naturae, ed. 10, 1 : 75, 1758. 



Type locality. — Spitzbergen Seas (See Thomas, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1911, 

 pt. 1, p. 156, 22 March 1911) . 



General distribution. — In western North Atlantic, from Iceland and Greenland 

 south to the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. 



Description. — ^This is a large baleen whale, the adults measuring be- 

 tween 50 and 65 feet in total length. The coloration is velvety black 

 except for a small ash-colored area at the tip of the lower jaws, a 

 cream-colored chin and throat and occasionally white or piebald under- 

 parts. The undersurface of the body in the region of the throat has 

 numerous longitudinal grooves. The dorsal fin is high and triangular, 

 usually with a concave posterior border. The baleen in this species ex- 

 hibits asymmetry in coloration, the blades on the right side being white 

 for more than a third of the distance from the tip of the snout and the 

 remainder on that side, and all of the left side, being colored a dull 

 blue-gray with streaks of white and yellow. This whale is known as the 

 greyhound of the ocean because of its slender build and great speed 

 in swimming. 



Maryland records. — ^The type specimen of Bihhaldius tectirostris 

 Cope (a species now regarded as a synonym of Balaenoptera physalus) 

 washed ashore on the Maryland coast near Sinepuxent Inlet, Worces- 

 ter County, in the winter 1868-69. The skull of this specimen is now 

 in the U.S. National Museum collections. 



