438 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [May, 



in the Osteographie des Cetaces, Plate XXV, demonstrates that it 

 is certainly referable to that species. It also shows the distinctive 

 characters of the rostrum and other parts of the skull present in the 

 Massachusetts skeleton and leaves little doubt that Dr. True's 

 identification of the latter with M. densirostris is correct. The 

 New Jersey specimen thus definitely introduces Mesoplodon densi- 

 rostris into the North American fauna. 



I have to thank Mr. Henry W. Fowler for the privilege of examining 

 and reporting upon this specimen and to congratulate the Academy 

 upon its acquisition. 



It is desirable to give a brief description of the exterior and skeleton 

 as well as figures of certain bones since the osteology of the species, 

 other than the skull, is rather imperfectly known. 



Mr. Fowler has furnished the following notes upon the external 

 characters of the specimen: "In color the skin was mostly uniform 

 blackish, smooth and shining. About the head and jaws, below," 

 and irregularly along the ventral surface medianly, were livid pale 

 areas sometimes with very faint bluish tints. Afterward various 

 parts of the body became somewhat reddish in tint due to decom- 

 position going on. The flukes of the tail and the dorsal and pec- 

 toral fins were entirely black. 



"This whale had been dead but a very short time when discovered, 

 and had evidently been struck with some object, possibly a harpoon, 

 on the side of the neck. 



" It has also bled a little at the mouth as may be seen from the 

 photograph (this wrongly suggesting the corner of the mouth). 

 The photograph does not give a good idea of the greatly elevated 



gums of the lower jaw No barnacles or parasites of any 



kind were found in, or on, this specimen. The stomach was full 

 of undetermined organic material. The whale was 14 feet 5 inches 

 long and 4 feet in circumference." 



The skeleton shows that .the individual from which it was taken, 

 although not old, was fully adult, for the mesorostral cartilage is 

 thoroughly ossified and all the epiphyses are firmly ankylosed to the 

 vertebral bodies. 



The skulls of the Massachusetts and New Jersey specimens agree 

 closely in all important particulars, the only noticeable difference 

 being in the absence in the former of the maxillary tubercle between 

 the anteorbital notch and the base of the rostrum. This is sup- 

 posedly a character of age, but is even less developed in the adult 

 specimen figured in the Osteographie des Cetaces. 



