Abstract

(…) On June 18, 1910, while the guest of the Oriental Whaling Company, Ltd. (Toyo Hogei Kabushiki Kaisha), at their station at Aikawahama in the north of Japan, a porpoise was secured which is apparently new to science. This specimen, an adult male, was captured by Capt. Y. E. Andersen of the whale ship “Hogei Maru No. 5,” who recognized that it was a species unknown to him and went to considerable trouble to secure and preserve it for me. So far as could be discovered by inquiries among the whalers and fishermen no other porpoise like it had been seen or taken, and it is probable that the animal is rare.
As I was absent from the station at the time, I did not see this specimen until four days after it had been killed. The body had been opened ventrally and the viscera removed, otherwise it was intact. This porpoise in coloration, shape of the dorsal fin, number of vertebrae and skull characters is allied to Phocoena dalli True. Thus, so far as is known, the existing Phocoena-like porpoises fall into two natural groups which I believe to merit full generic rank. (…)