102 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NOETH ATLANTIC. 



10. Megaptera ^-ersabilis Cope. 1869. 

 "The North Pacific Humpback." 



Original descrijytion : Proceedings, Academy of Natural Sciences, Phila., 1869, 

 p. 15. Pi'eseiited for publication Mai'ch 9, 1869; published July 20, 1869. 



Type-locaUt;/ : Noith Pacific. 



No specimens. Named from Scammon's measurements and description. 



The original description is as follows : 



"The North Pacific hump-back. This species possesses pectoral fins, appar- 

 ently intermediate in length between those of the M. longimana and the species 

 with shortei' fins, as M. ospliyia and M. huzira. They are between one-third and 

 one-foui'th the length ; in the two last mentioned, between one-fourth and one-fifth. 

 It has 26 pectoial and gular folds. Siebold states that the M. huzira possesses but 

 ten. In this animal the warts extend to the top of the front, a character not 

 ascribed to any Atlantic Megaptera. It differs also fi'om M. longimana, and 

 resembles M, lalandii and M. kuzira, m having the pectoral black on the external 

 face ; in the Greenland species and in the model of the Aleutian Islanders, described 

 by Chamisso, it is white. The characteristic color of the l)elly, in the most typical 

 foi-m, is said to be entirely black. In this respect it difi;'ers from all other Megapterw, 

 which pieseut more or less white, or grey, on the inferior surfaces at least." 



Note on Megaptera brasiliensis. 



Though the locality of the specimen to which Cope attached this name takes 

 it somewhat out of our I'ange, I have thought it desirable to make reference to 

 it here, in oi'dei' that comparisons might l)e instituted, if necessary, between it and 

 Cope's West Indian species, J/, bellicosa, with which it might be supposed to be 

 closely allied, if not identical. 



From the brief statement in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, 1867, in which this name appeal's it might at first be supposed 

 that Cope intended to describe a new species. His commentary on the pai'agi-aph 

 in 1871, however, leads one to infer that such was not the case, though the matter 

 is left in a veiy unsatisfactoiy condition. As both recoi-ds are very brief, I will 

 C|Uote them in full. The paragraph of 1867 is as follows: 



" Pi'of. Cope presented to the Academy a young specimen of the Avhale, known 

 as the Bahia Finner, procured near Bahia, Brazil, the length of which was 21 feet. 

 He said it belonged to the genus Megaptera, Gray, with the hunchback whales of 

 sailors. The evidence consists in the veiy short di- and para])ophyses of the 

 cervical vertebrae and the absence of all trace of acromion and coracoid processes. 

 The orbital [ii'ocesses of the frontal are narrowed externally and the muzzle consid- 

 erably narrowed. Judging from the name, it possesses a more fully developed 

 doi'sal fin than the other Megaptera. It should be called Megaptera hraziliensisr 

 {25, 32.) 



Cope's commentary on this, published in 1871, is as follows : 



"The species desci'ibed by Gray (Catal. B. Mus., 1866, 62) as PTiymhis hrasili- 

 ensis, founded on some baleen of the ' Bahia Finnei',' has been supposed by me 



