Whalebone Whales of New England ¹

Abstract

WITH a record of many previous American authors who had studied the whalebone whales of the eastern shores of the United States, it was no easy task for Mr. G. M. Allen to produce anything novel in this monogriph. Yet the systematic manner in which he has handled the whole subject, from synonymy to enemies and parasites, renders the memoir both interesting and instructive, especially in connection with the habits, appearances in life, disposition, food, breeding, commercial value, parasites, and capture² Some general questions are also dealt with, such as the notion of Ryder, the late able investigator of the fishes, that the tail-flukes of whales probably represent degenerate hind feet, not the whole limb, as Gray and some earlier authors held; whereas Owen, Huxley, Flower, Parker, and Claus were of opinion that the whole hind limb was (externally) suppressed or atrophied, and that flukes and dorsal fin had been secondarily added. The author's countryman, Gill, also thought that the flukes were derived from the greatly hypertrophied integument of the hind limbs, analogous tq the hind limbs of the eared seal, whilst the osseous elements have been atrophied, basing this supposition on the fact that the dorsal and ventral vessels are distinct, and that the crus, when present, is in the line of the flukes.