178 



THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



BALJENOPTERA MUSCULVS (L.). NEWFOUNDLAND. LENGTH OF WHALEBONE. 



Average 24.7 inches. 



The length 32 inches must be regarded as exceptioual. lu a lot of whalebone 

 stoi'ed in the yard at the station, the longest I could find was 27 inches, above the 

 gum, and without tbe bristles. As this was from a very large number of whales, 

 probably between 40 and 50, it seems singular that I should have encountered 

 longer whalebone in three instances in the whales I personally examined. I cannot 

 account for this except on the theory that the \vhalebone shi-inks when exposed to 

 the air for a considei'able time. 



In the Longniddry (Scotland) whale, the whalebone was reported by Turner 

 as 33^ inches long, including the pai't imbedded in the gum, or about 29| inches 

 without it. 



The length of the longest bristles in a Newfoundland Sulphurbottom (length 

 77 ft. 2 in.) was 18 inches. 



HAIRS. 



The scattered hairs found on the head and mandible of fcetal whales are not 

 always discoverable on the adults. In the majority of the Newfoundland Sulphur- 

 bottoms they were not noticed, but on No. 9, 9 (length 72 ft.), there was a row of 

 dirty white or yellowish hairs along the proximal half of the left ramus of the 

 mandible, and on the head a row starting with two fi-om behind the blowholes, 

 curving around them on a semicircle to their anterior end and running thence to 

 the tip of the snout ; a second row of hairs was situated nearer the margin of the 

 jaw. In No. 23, 9 (length 67 ft. 3 in.), a row of about 6 hairs, each in a raised 

 tubercle, occurred at the proximal end of the right ramus of the mandible. In sev- 

 ei'al specimens was to be noticed a vertical double row of yellowish hairs at the 

 symphysis of the mandible, the haii's themselves being about 3 in. apart. 



OSTEOLOGY. 



The skeleton of Balmnoptera musoulus has been described by Flower (4.5, 

 410-414) under the name of Physalus latirostris, and by Reinhardt (75), Van 



