The Hiftory c/'ANIMALS. 313 
of thefe fifh better than moll others, calls it Balaena major laminas corneas in fnperiore 
maxilla habens, fid ala donata, bipinnis; Ray, Balaena vulgaris edentula dorfo non pin- 
nato j Ronddet, Balaena vulgo di&a, five Mufculus; Gefner, Balaena vulgo did a, 
live Myfiicaetus Ariflotelis et Mufculus Plinii ; Aldrovand and jonfton call it Balaena 
vulgi; Gharleton, Balaena vulgaris; and Bellonius, Charleton, and many others, 
limply, Balaena. Gaza calls it Mufculus pifcis, and Marten and fome others, Balaena 
Spitfbergenfis; we, properly and limply, the Whale. 
Sibbald defcribes another Balaena agreeing with this fpecies in all refpeds, except 
'that it has no fiflule j but this is only owing to an error. There is no Balaena which has 
not a fiflule; and this account of Sibbald’s is formed from Faber’s bad defcription of 
the common Greenland whale, for it is evident that he meant no other, though he 
had but a very impeded idea ofthis. 
Balcena fifiula in medio capite , tubero pinniformi in extreme 
dorfo. 
The Balcena , with the fiflule in the middle of the head , and 
a pinniform tuberofity on the back. 
This is a very fingularly-fhaped fifh for one of this genus; it is equal in length to 
the Greenland whale, but it’s thicknefs is not one third fo much : the head is very 
large, and the lower jaw is larger than the upper ; the opening of the mouth is wide, 
but there are no teeth in it: the upper jaw has, in their place, a quantity of bony la¬ 
minae, as in the former fpecies; and in the lower there is nothing : the head is forne- 
what deprefled, and has feveral irregularities in it’s figure, particularly fome oblong de- 
preffions in the front, and toward the fides: the eyes are very fmall, in proportion, but 
they are placed at a lefs diflance than in the former, though in this not at all near one 
another : the fiflule is fimple at it’s aperture, but it is double in it’s paffage; it Hands 
nearly in the middle of the head, and is larger than in any other fpecies: the fifh alfo 
makes a more violent ufe of it than any other, toffing the water to an immoderate 
height, and with vafl violence from it. 
The head in this fpecies is long, and, in proportion, flender ; it is round at the 
fides, but fomewhat ridged on the back, efpecially on it’s hinder part, and the belly is 
flatted: toward the tail there Hands, on the very ridge of the back, a tuberofity re- 
fembling a fin : the tail is very large, and a little forked, but it is but very little fo; 
the fifh has a power of moving it with vafl violence. 
This fpecies was known to the Greeks. fElian and Oppian call it ; Pliny, 
and after him mofl of the Latin writers, have called it Phyfeter; Gefner calls it Phy- 
falis Bellua five Phyfeter j and Charleton, Phyfeter, Phyfalus. Our people, on the 
Greenland fifhery, call it the Fin-fifh. 
Balcena fifiula duplici in rofiro , protuberantia corniformi in extreme 
dorfo . \ 
The Bal<ena y with a double fiflule in the roftrum y and a cor?tiform 
protuberance on the back. 
This is a confiderably large fpecies, tho’ inferior in fize to the Greenland whale, and 
The former : it grows to fifty feet, or more, in length, and the body is confiderably thick, 
in proportion : the head is large, and the roflrum, in comparifon of the others, is 
acute: the opening of the mouth is large, and the upper jaw is furnifhed with the 
horny laminae, in the manner of the Greenland whale : the eyes are fmall, and they 
Hand very diflant: the fiflule is double, or has a double aperture, and is placed more 
forward on the roflrum than in any of the others: the body is rounded, but the back 
rifes into a ridge, and has on it’s hinder part a protuberance fhaped like a horn: the 
belly is wrinkled; the tail is very large, and fomewhat divided at the middle, but not 
deeply fo, and the fifli has a furprifing force with it. 
This fpecies is fometimes thrown on fhore on our northern coafls, and is alfo met 
with in the remoteft Northern Seas. Sibbald has called it Balaena tripinnis nares habens 
cum roftro, et plica in ventre ; Ray has taken this name; the refi of the Ichthyologifts 
have not known it. 
q L 
Balcena 
