146 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



to the same species io which the average of size is different. This view seems 

 most reasonable in the case in question, considering the remarkable cori'espoud- 

 euce in proportions and other characters. 



To my mind, the deraoustj'atioo of the specific identity of the " Common Fin- 

 back " of the eastei-n and western Atlantic in the foregoing pages is practically 

 complete. That the average size of the specimens taken on the two sides of the 

 ocean does not agree, is a matter to be explained hereafter, but standing by 

 itself it does not, I think, invalidate the demonstration. 



THE REPRESENTATIVE OF B. PHYSALUS IN GREENLAND. 



Robert Brown and others have stated that the Greenlauders recognize two 

 oi' more species of large Finbacks under the name of Tunnolih. There appears 

 not to have been as yet an opportunity for a zoologist to treat tlie matter 

 critically on the basis of specimens of different kinds actually examined and com- 

 pared, but cetological literature contains some few data bearing upon the subject. 



Scoresby gives a few measurements and a brief desciiption of a "Physalis 

 found dead in Davis's Strait, 105 feet" long (S^, i., p. 481). This is more likely to 

 have represented an American Sulphurbottora than B. pliysalvs (L.), althougli 

 the lenirth is no doubt exagojerated. Eschricht gives measurements of a Tnn- 

 nolik which H. P. C. Moller examined in 1843, but this was also probably a 

 Sulphurbottom. 



In his Oversigt af Skandinavieus Hvaldjur, Lilljeboi'g {64, 47 and 55) gives a 

 few measurements of, and some notes on, a skeleton from Gi'eenland in the Copen- 

 Jiagen museum, which is probably to be regarded as i-epresenting JB. 2^^fy^cilus. 

 The description is as follows : 



"The skeleton is from a young animal, with loose vertebral e|)iphyses and 

 with the outer parts of the annular transverse processes of the 3d to the 6th 

 cervical vertebra cartilaginous. The number of vertebr* is 61, of which 24 

 are caudal vertebme. All the lumbars, as well as the posteiior dorsals, ai'e keeled 

 alon"- the luider side of the body, though the keel is least marked anterioily. 

 The 13 anterior caudals do not decrease largely in length backwai'd. The 

 transvei'se processes of the most posterior dorsals ai'e with rounded terminations, 

 and also that of tke 1st lumbar, and are also directed a little backward, whereas, 

 on the contrary, the latter are dii'ected forward. The transvei'se processes of the 

 6 anterior dorsals are directed foi-ward, the most anterior the most strongly, and 

 that of the 6th little marked, but still so that the line drawn from the middle 

 of the tip of one to the same place on the othei- lies in front of the middle of the 

 body of the vertebra. The transverse processes oi the 7 posteiior dorsals are 

 dii'ected backward, but of these the first and last less strongly. The transverse 

 processes of the 7th and 8th dorsals are directed straight out on the sides. All the 

 transverse processes of the lumbosacrals, with exception of the last, are, however, 

 directed forward. Processus spinosi inferiores 18." 



The characters of the vertebrae above given agree with those of the Mas- 

 sachusetts skeleton in the National Museum, but in the latter the anterior dorsals 



