Also 6 bellougina. [In sense 1, a. Russ. бълуга bĕlū·ga; in sense 2, a. Russ, бълуxа bĕlū·χa; both f. бъло- bĕlo-, white + -uga, -uχa, augmentative formatives. Fletcher’s word is evidently the Russ. deriv. biêlū·zhina flesh of the beluga.]
1. A species of fish: the Great or Hausen Sturgeon (Acipenser huso), found in the Caspian and Black Seas, and their tributary rivers.
1591. G. Fletcher, Russe Commw. (1857), 12. Or ickary or cavery, a great quantitie is made upon the … Volgha out of the fish called bellougina.
1772. Jackson, Isinglass, in Phil. Trans., LXIII. 7. The Beluga yields the greatest quantity.
1869. Nicholson, Zool. (1880), 493. The various species of sturgeon attain a great size, one—the Beluga—often measuring 12 or 15 feet in length.
2. The white Whale (Delphinapterus leucas), an animal of the Dolphin family, found in herds in the Northern Seas, and in the estuaries of rivers.
1817. in Burrowes, Cycl.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 211. It [the Beluga, or White Whale] rarely visits our own coasts.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 25 July, 11/2. In the placid … waters of the fjords … one meets with … shoals of the beluga, or white whale.
