Sea m 1740. It was 84 feet long; the pectoral, 9, th e head
22 feet long, and the tail 14 feet wide. H e describes the
skm as brown.
_ T h e folloiving description must be referred to this spe-
cies with doubt. ^
Ascanins (Icon. Ror. Nat. iii. t. 26) gives a figure of
a Iemale Balwnoptera, which he calls a Rorqual with a
p laited belly, 66 feet long, from the North Sea, which he
th o u g h t might be B . musculus o f Linnæus, (it is not well
copied by Bonnaterre E . M. t. 3, f. 1 and Schreber, t.
which has a large r pec toral fin, about 4 the length of
th e body, b u t the drawing is n o t so good as the others in
the work, and the fin is so awkwardly applied to th e body
that perhaps Its size may depend on th e incompetence of
the artist. T h e dorsal fin, which is only indicated as if
doiffitful in the original figure, is continued to the tail, but
m Bonnaterre s copy it is represented as o f equal authority
with the o th e r part. I may remark th a t the pectoral fin,
inste ad o f having th e wliite spot occupying th e greater
p a rt o f Its upper side, which is spoken o f by Hunter, R a vin,
and F. Cnvier, and found in our specimen, is reure-
smitcd (lark like the back, with a pale edge. I t is also to be
observed th a t Schlegel, iu the three figures he gives o f the
Rorqual Whale, represents the pectoral fiu as all black, like
the back.
F abricius (Fami. Groen. 37) five years after, described a
Jlalmtoptera under th e name o f B . Boops, Linn which
appears lo differ from B . P h p so lm , for he described the
_ Rinnæ pectorales magnæ, obovato-oblongæ, margine postica
nitegm, regione cubiti parura fractæ, antica autem ro-
tiindato-crenatæ.” And h e continues, “ Antes nares in
vertice capitis tres ordines convexitatum circularium, huic
orsitan peculiare quid,” “ P inna dorsalis compressa, basi
(atior, apice acutiuscula, antice siirsum repanda, postice
lere peipendicularis,”_and “ Coipus pone pinnam dorsalem
acuta in pinnam caudalem usque pergens.”
Ih is , from the size o f th e pectorals, may be the same as
tlie one figured by Ascanius. Both arc true Balænonieræ,
from the position o f the genital organs and vent compared
witli the dorsal fin, and F abricius especially says the pectoral
fan IS composed o f five fingers.
R u d o l p h i ’s F in .n e r W h a l e .
Balæna rostrata, Rudolphi, Berl. Abhand. 1820, I. 1—4.
Rorqual du Nord, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. 564, t. 26, f. 6
copied from Rudolphi.
Black, beneath wh ite ; u pper jaws wide, in the skull
only twice as long as the width o f their base in front o f the
orbits, the lower ones slightly curved and scarcely wider
than the edge o f the upper ones. P ectoral fin \ the entire
length, and ra the r more than J , and the dorsal nearly 4-,
from the nose. *
Inhab. North Sea, coast o f H olstein, 1819, Rudolphi.
T h e length was 31 feet 1 ; from nose to the eye, 2,9 ; to
blower, 3 ,1 1 ; to pectoral, 3,6J ; to the front o f the dorsal,
19,2 ; to the vent, 21 feet.
Cuvier copies th e figure o f the head of this Whale as
th at of the No rth em Rorqual, and points out its distinctions
from th a t which he had received from the Mecliterra-
nean, which agrees with the head of the Balæna rostrata
ot Hu n ter, th e one we have from Deptford, and with M.
Ravin s animal, and that found on th e shores o f Ostend
I t IS very desirable th a t Rudolphi’s skeleton should be more
particularly examined and compared with the other species:
in the fagiu-es, th e nasal bones are much broader than in
the common Finner, Balænoptera Physalus.
T h e P e r u v ia n F in n e r . Balænoptera fasciata.
Bal. n. s. Tschudi, Mammal. Consp. Peruana, 13.
Lower jaw scarcely longer than the u pper ; head and
back ash-brown ; belly whitish ; tips o f fins and a streak
from the eye to the middle of the body white.” Tschudi
Inhab. Coast o f Peru.
T h e J a p a n F in n e r . Balænoptera Iwasi.
Balænoptera arctica, Schlegel, Faun. Japon. 26.
A species of this genus is known in Jap a n under the
name of Iw a si K u z ira . I t is very rare. One wa.s cast
ashore in 1760 at Kii, which was about 25 feet long: black
belly vvhilish, sides white-spotted. They distinguish it
from the other W hales by the head being smaller, narrower
and more pointed, and the pectoral shorter. I t was driven
ashore by the S aka n a ta (grampus). No remains o f this
species were brought home by M. Siebold. Temminck’s
‘ F au n a Jap ó n ic a ’ says that it is the same as the northern
species. I t IS very desirable th a t the bones of the Japan
and northern specimens should be accurately compared.
It may be observed th a t several animals, th e Mole and the
Badger for .example, were said to be equally like the E u -
rope an species, b u t recent research has shown they are
distinct, and are now so allowed in the ‘ Fauna Jap ó n ica ’
This genus also inhabits the Columbian shores. Lewis
and Clarke mention th e skeleton o f a Rorqual found near
the Columbia river, 105 feet long.— Travels, 422.
Chamisso, in his accounts of the wooden'models of
Whales which were made by the Aleutians, o f the species
found in their seas, which he deposited in the Berlin Museum,
and described and figured in the N . Acta N a t. Cur
XU 212, figures three kinds o f this genus, viz., Abugulich,
t. 16, f. 2 ; Mangidach, X. 16, f. 3 ; and Agamachtschich,
t. 18, f. 4, the B . Agamachschik, Pallas, Z. Ross. t. a.
I f reliance is to be placed in the wooden models made
by the Aleutians, which have been described and figured
by Chamisso, and many of them are not bad representations
o f known geuera. There is a genus found a t Kamschatka
which has n o t yet been described : it is called
Balæna Tschiekagluk by Pallas, Zool. Ross. Asiat i 089
— Nov. Act. N a t. Cur. 259, t. 19, /; 6. I t has no dorsal
fan, and a smooth belly and ch e s t; the upper and lower
p a rt o f the under portion o f the body is slightly keeled,
the head rounded, like Balænoptera, with the blower on
the hinder part o f the crown. The lower side of tho tail
and the pectoral are while.
*** “ Male Organs under the Dorsal."
S o u t h e r n F in n e r . Balænoptera australis.
B. Quoyii, Fischer, Syn. 526.
B. rostrata australis, Desmoulin, Diet. Cl. H. N . ii. 166.
Inhab. Falkland islands.
Desmoulin$(Dict. Class. H. Nat. i. 164), under the name
of Balæna rostrata australis, described a Whale seen by
M. Quoy on the shores o f Falkland Islands, which he says
wa.« exactly like B . Physalus. I t was 55 feet long, and
the pectoral fin 6 feet 3 inches, th a t is, about J the entire
length, the same as in Balænoptera Physalus, b u t he says
the dorsal fin was over the male organ, a character which as
far as I know is peculiar to the Ilum p -b a ck ed Whale, thus
presenting a combination o f characters which, if correct,
will not only prove it to be a distinct species, b u t one forming
a section by itself.
Fam. 2. C a t o d o n t id æ . T o o t h e d W h a l e s .
He ad large. U ppe r jaw toothless; lower jaw with conical
tee th fitting into cavities in the edge of the upper
one. Blowers u nited together, with a lunate opening.
I. C a t o d o n , part, Artedi. Spermaceti Whale.
P hyseter, part, L in n . Physalus, Lacep.
He ad truncated and ra the r compressed in front, with
the blowers close together on the front o f th e up p er edge,
separated from the head by an indentation. Nose of
skull elongate, broad, depressed. Lower jaw shorter than
the u pper one, very narrow, cylindrical in front, and
united by a symphysis for nearly h a lf their length. Back
with a roundish tubercle in front, over the eyes, called the
“ bunch,” and a rounded ridge o f fat behind, highest in
front over the genital organs, called the “ hump,” and continued
in a ridge to the tail. No true dorsal fin. P e c toral
broad, truncated. Tee th conical, often worn down.
Males larger than the females.
Clusius describes the blowers as placed on the head near
the back, and Artedi and Linnæus adopt this error in their
character of Physeter macrocephalus. Anderson (Iceland,
ii. 186, t. 4) gives a figure of a Whale with a truncated
head, much resembling the old figures o f the Sperm Whale,
with the blower on the hinder p a rt o f the head, like a Phy-
seter. Bonnaterre established on this figure his Physeter
cylindrus ; and Lacepède forms a genus for it, which he
calls Physalus. The Dutch engraving of the animal described
by Clusius, shows this to have been a mistake.
T h e bunch and hump referred to by B eale and th e other
w'halers, appears first to have been described by T. Hasæus
of Breme, in 1723, in a dissertation on th e ‘ Leviathan of
Job and the Wha le of Jo n a s ;’ on “ a specimen 70 feet long,
with a very large head, the lower jaw 16 feet long, with 52
pointed teeth, with a boss on tho back, and another near
the tail, which resembles a fin.” Cuvier, after quoting this
very accurate description, observes, “ Mais d’apres l ’observation
fait sur divers dauphins, cette disposition que p e rsonne
n’a revue pourvoit avoir été accidentelle, e t alors cet
animal n’auroit différé en rien du Cachalot vulgaire.”—
0 .9S. Foss. V. 331. Inde ed Cuvier’s mind appears io have
been made up that the Sperm Wha le had no hump in the
place of the dorsal fin, for he wrongly accuses Bonnaterre
of having added a tubercle in his copy of A nderson’s figure,
which is not in th e original.— Oss. Foss. 332. Anderson,
in the description of this animal, says th a t it has a prominence
four feet long and a foot and a h a lf high near its
tail, as in his figure. B u t the fact was that Cuvier eiTo-
neously combined the Sperm Whale and the Black-fish
[Physeter) to g eth er; and he could not otherwise reconcile
how some authors, as Haseiis, Anderson and P ennant,
described th e Sperm Whale with a hum p ; while Sibbald
describes th e Physeter, which he erroneously considered
th e same animal, with a dorsal fin, overlooking a t the
same time the great difference in the form of the head,
and in the position o f th e blower o f these two very dissimilar
genera.— Oss. Foss. 338.
From the following ex tra ct it would appe ar th a t Mr.
Bell has most unaccountably fallen into the same mistake.
H e says, — “ After careful examination o f th e various a c counts
which have from time to time been given of Whales
belonging to this family, called Spermaceti Whales, I have
found it necessary to adopt an opinion in some measure at
variance with those of most previous writers, with regard
to the genera and species to which all those accounts and
details are to be referred. T h e conclusion to which I have
been led is, first, th a t the High-Jinned Cachalot is specifically
b u t not generically distinc t from the common one,
and th a t therefore the genus Catodon is to be abolished,
and the name Physe ter retained for both species, and secondly,
th a t all the other species which have been distinguished
by various naturalists, have been founded upon
trifling variations, or upon vague and insufficient data.”—
B r it. Quad. 507. Thus, though he differs from Cuvier in
regarding them as distinc t species, yet he overlooked Sibb
ald ’s figures, for he says there is none o f the High-finned
Cachalot in existence, and persists in keeping it in the
genus Physeter, which he characterizes as having the
“ H e ad enormou.sly large, Imiicated in front,” which is
quite unlike the depressed rounded head o f the high-finned
Cachalot, or Black-fish o f the whalers; and he also adopts
the mistaken description of the dorsal fin.
The N o r t h e r n S p e r m W h a l e . Catodon macrocephalus.
Spermaceti Whale, Dudley, P h il. Trans, x x x ii. 258.
Bluut-head Cachalot, Robertson, Ph il. Trans. Ix. t.
Balaina macrocephala bipiuiiis, Sibbald, P h a l. 13. R a ii,
Pisces, 15, 11.
Physeter Catodon, 0 . Fab. 44, a n d Robertson, n o i L in n .
Ph. Trumpo, Bonnal. Cetac. t. 8, / 1, from Robertson.
Physeter macrocephalus, L in n . S. N , O. Fab. F. Groen.
41.
P hyseter gibbus, Schreb.
Inhab. North Sea, Teignmoiith, Gesner, 1532. Scotland,
Sibbald, Robertson. Greenland, 0 . Fab. &c. New
E n gland, Dudley.
I t is to be remarked th at all the older W'riters only describe
this animal as occurring in the Northem Seas, and
Robertson and Fabricius described it as black when young,
becoming whitish below.
All the figures, exc ept Anderson’s, are, by the unanimous
experience of the whalers, far too long for the thickness,
and Anderson’s scarcely represents the “ bunch ”
sufficiently p rominent; besides having the blower on the
wrong p a rt o flh e head.
Beale (Hist, o f tlie Sperm Whale) says there is b u t one
species found in the North Sea, North America, New Guinea,
Jap a n or P e ru ; but this is merely speaking the la n guage
o f whalers, and by species he means, as he does in
the other p arts of his book, genus. I have no doubt, from