ORDER OE CETACEA. 
85 
Balceniclce lie recognises five genera, viz., Balcena , Eubalcem , Ilun- 
terius , Caperia, and Macleayius. In Balcena tlie flakes of baleen 
are tliin 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 Balcena three species 
are recognised, and a fourth admitted dubiously. These are — 
1. B. mysticetus, the Arctic Right Whale ; 2. B. biscayensis, which 
is accepted as extinct by Professors Eschricht and Yan Bemden, 
and of which there is a skeleton in the Museum of Pampeluna ; 
3. B. merginata, the Western .Australian Right Whale, which 
acording to Dr. Gray, “is undoubtedly a very distinct species; 5 ’ 
4. (P) R. gibbosa, the alleged Scrag Whale of the Atlantic, which 
is thus described by Dudley in the Philosophical Transactions 
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. mysticetus ) in figure and quantity of oil. His bone (whale- 
bone) is white, but won’t split.” Cuvier supposed that this Scrag 
Whale was 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 Dieffenbach) ‘ Scrags ’ is the 
whalers’ name for th A young of the Right Whale.” Our latest 
authority, Mr. R. Brown, in his very excellent paper 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 ’ 
{Balcena nord-caper of Bonaterre, B. islandica 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 difficult 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- 
* Proceedings op tlie Zoological Society,, 1868, p. 347. 
