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Show I 868. j OF THE GREENLAND SEAS. 555 Whale which is not a "Right Whale," "finner," "parmacity" (spermaceti), " purpess," " unicorn" (Narwhal), or " White Whale" is with them included under the vague term of " Bottle-nose." The common and most characteristic name for this Whale is that used in the north of Scotland, viz. caaing or driving Whale-a term translated into deduct or*. There seems little doubt that this is the Delphinus tursio of Fabricius, as the Eskimo name Nesernak is applied to the present animal. If so, Fabricius's name has the priority ; but as it has been confounded with another species it is better to keep Lacepede's most barbarous trivial name. Gray and other authors look upon Fabricius's Nesernak as the type of a distinct species, and have described it as Tursio truncatus. The Delphinus truncatus of Montagu (Wernerian Society's Trans, vol. iii. t. 5. fig. 3) is a totally different animal. Fabricius's description ("Frons rotunda, declivis s. sursum repanda, desinens rostro attenuatiore; sic fronti anatis mollissimae, non absimilis"), though seemingly contradictory of the identity of the Globiocephalus svineval and Delphinus tursio of . O. Fabr., must in reality be received for no more than it is worth, Cetological critics have received the descriptions of Fabricius as if they were infallible or superior to those of any other author who has succeeded him. W e know that many of his descriptions of other animals which are well known were erroneous, and that few of those regarding which there could be no mistake were altogether free from error; therefore I cannot see why we should receive the others otherwise than as approximately correct. Fabricius enjoved during the few years he passed in Greenland no better opportunities than any other naturalist in that country at the present day. Many of the animals which he describes are very rarely killed or seen by the natives; and many of his descriptions bear on the face of them the marks of having been derived from the natives' narration, and not from actual specimens. Any one who has examined such unwieldy animals as the Cetacea must know how difficult it is, even under the most favourable circumstances, to arrive at anything like an accurate idea of the animal the external appearance of which we may be desirous of describing. Therefore, as the Greenlanders call this animal Nesernak, as the description does not widely differ from the appearance of the Caaing Whale, and as Montagu's Delphinus truncatus, with which it has been supposed to be synonymous, has never been found in Davis Strait, while the present species has, we are warranted in concluding with Dr. Reinhardt that the synonymy given under this species is correct. This Whale is not a regular visitor of Davis Strait or Baffin's Bay, but is occasionally to be seen in droves in the summer time along the whole coast of Danish Greenland. An excellent account of this species is given by Turner M'Bain, derived from the exami- * It has no connexion with calling, as it has sometimes been translated even in works written by Scotchmen. It is derived from the Scotch word caa, signifying to drive, relating to their ordinary method of capture, viz. by driving them ashore. |