ter. This is the color of the pectoral fin. In his figure of the lower side of a pectoral fin of the Greenland form (37, pl. 8, fig. 2), which was sent to him in salt in perfect condition, the black color is seen to occupy all but a small portion near the root, while in Bocourt's figure of the Bretagne specimen and other European specimens the broad white band is nearly as well marked on the lower side of the pectoral as on the upper. A copy of Eschricht's figure is here given, text fig. 67. Of

FIG. 67.—(1) ANTERIOR OR OUTER SURFACE. (2) POSTERIOR OR INNER SURFACE. (FROM ESCHRICHT.)

the Greenland pectoral, Eschricht remarks: "Undeniably the black color has on the side named [the under side] a wider distribution than appears to take place in the Vaagehval" (36, 347). This may of course be merely an individual variation, but it is at least a very striking difference.

The Greenland skull figured by Gray agrees well in proportions, as already stated, with European skulls of equal size. If Gray's figure is correct, however, it presents some peculiarities of its own. The most striking of these is the shape of the premaxilla which have considerably curved outer margins, and decrease in width gradually toward the proximal end, so that the nasal concavity is more elongated than in B. acuto-rostrata. The premaxillæ are also much more closely approximated in the median line than in the latter species. This and the other characters mentioned may be due to defects in the drawing, but as the figures in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Erebus and Terror are quite accurate, they are worthy of further attention.

Gray, who had access to the skeleton from Greenland in the British Museum, and who, as is well known, multiplied species without stint, remarks of this species : "Our Greenland skull does not appear to differ from that of the English skeleton" (53, 192). He combines American and European references in the same synonymy, and cites New York, Greenland, and Norway among the localities for the single species, "B. rostrata" (53, 188).

Van Beneden and Gervais follow the same course in the Ostéographie, adding Alaska to the list of American localities on the authority of Chamisso. They notice the form from Greenland which Holböll proposed to call microcephala, on account of its relatively small head, and remark: "As many skeletons are now known from these parts (Greenland), and since thus far no one has found any dif ferences between them, there is every reason to suppose that in these Balanopteræ, as in Balana mysticetus, there are individuals with smaller heads" (8, 152).

Van Beneden, in 1889, again expresses the opinion that the Greenland and European specimens are of the same species, and includes also Scammon's B. davidsoni, from the North Pacific.

CHAPTER VII.

THE HUMPBACK, MEGAPTERA NODOSA (BONNATErre).

That a species of whale with very long pectoral limbs and with abdominal ridges, or, in other words, a Humpback, occurred in European waters, was not recognized by science until 1829, when Rudolphi read a paper before the Berlin Academy of Sciences in which he described a specimen stranded in November, 1824, at Vogelsand, at the mouth of the Elbe River (76). For this specimen Rudolphi proposed the name Balana longimana. He was content to leave the species in the Linnean genus Balana, and it was not until 1845 that the Humpbacks were regarded as constituting a separate group. In that year Brandt established for them the subgenus Boöps, distinguished by the single character-"pectoral elongate." 2 This name is preoccupied by Boöps Cuvier, 1817 (fishes). In 1846 Gray renamed the genus Megaptera and enumerated its principal characters (56, 16).

In Eschricht's list of whales stranded on the European coasts (37, 176) only two specimens are recorded between 1824 and 1846, a period of twenty-two years. Van Beneden (7) records very few others up to 1889. This is somewhat remarkable, as Cocks's statistics of the Finmark whaling stations show a considerable number of Humpbacks captured, aggregating from 40 to 100 annually.

Although the European Humpback was unknown to science until 1824, American species were described at a much earlier date and were introduced into zoological nomenclature by Fabricius under the name of Balana boöps in 1780, and by Bonnaterre under the name Balana nodosa in 1789. Bonnaterre's species was founded on Dudley's description of the Humpback whale of New England waters. Fabricius's species was based on his own observations in Greenland.

In this case, as the American species (or one of them, if there are several) was named first, the question to be considered is whether the European species is to be regarded as a synonym. With the Finback whales the case is the reverse, the European species having been named first.

1

The fullest information regarding the European Humpback is to be found in

Van Beneden (7, 121) mentions one having been stranded near Greifswald, March, 1545, another on the coast of Courland in May, 1578, and a third near Stettin in 1628. I have not found

the sources from which Van Beneden derived knowledge of these specimens.

2 BRANDT in Tchihatcheff's Voyage Sci. dans l'Altai Oriental. Paris, 1845. 4°.

Struthers's elaborate monograph, published in 1889 (87) in Sars's Fortsatte Bidrag, 1881 (80), where there is an excellent figure of the exterior, in Cocks's accounts of the Finmark fisheries (15–19), and in Van Beneden's works.

For the Greenland species we have Fabricius's description (41, 36) and the extended discussion in Eschricht's Untersuchungen ueber nordischen Wallthiere, 1849 (37), and Van Beneden's comments on specimens distributed among various European museums by Eschricht.

Specimens from the Atlantic coasts of the United States and southward are not common. There are two skeletons in the National Museum, one in the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences (type of M. bellicosa, incomplete), one at Niagara, N. Y. (type of M. osphyia), one in the Public Museum, Milwaukee, Wis. All these I have seen and examined. I also examined three fresh specimens at the Snook's Arm whaling station, Newfoundland, in 1899.

SIZE.

The most satisfactory data relating to the size of the European Humpback are the measurements obtained by Cocks from the whales at the Finmark whaling stations in 1885 and 1886 (17 and 18). These measurements are chiefly in Norwegian feet, without inches, and are probably taken around the curves. They are more likely to overstate than understate the actual length. To compare with these, the measurements made by the whalers at Balena Station, Newfoundland, in 1900 and 1901, will be given. In addition, we have the measurements of various specimens stranded on the coasts of Europe and the United States at different times.

During my stay at the Snook's Arm Station, Newfoundland, in 1899, three Humpbacks were taken, having the following length from tip of snout to notch of flukes along the curve of the back:

MEGAPTERA NODOSA (BONNATERRE). SNOOK'S ARM, NEWFOUNDLAND. 1899.

The following specimens were taken at Balena Station, Newfoundland, in 1900 and 1901, and measured by the whalers. The measurement in each case is probably a maximum, along the curve of the back.

1

Contained a male fœtus 3 ft. 3 in. long.

2

Contained a male foetus 3 ft. 9 in. long.

MEGAPTERA NODOSA (BONNATERRE). BALENA STATION, NEWFOUNDLAND. 1900 AND 1901.

In order of size, the males and females of these, and the three Snook's Arm specimens, and the specimens not having the sex recorded, are as follows:

MEGAPTERA NODOSA (BONNATERRE). NEWFOUNDLAND.

Cocks's statistics for the Finmark stations in 1885 and 1886 are as follows: