THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 179 



Benedeii and Gewais (8), and others. Unfoi-tunately, there is ahnost nothing in 

 the way of American material which can be comi)ared with the European speci- 

 mens. The only skeleton in any of the museums of the United States is that of 

 the specimen stranded at Ocean City, New Jersey, in October, 1891, which is in 

 the collection of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. This whale was 

 examined and measuied by Mr. J. C. Ives and myself, and was afterward the sub- 

 ject of an article by Cope (31).^ 



The length of this specimen as it lay on the beach was G6 ft. 2 in. The un- 

 mounted skeleton at the Philadelphia Academy measures 52 ft. 2 in. as it lies, but 

 lacks the piemaxilLie and one intei'raediate and probably three terminal caudal 

 vertebras, and the bones are much too close together. 



Cope came to the conclusion that it combined the characters of JB. ^^hysalns 

 and B. musculns, and remarked in closing his article : " It I'emainsto be ascertained 

 whether these chai-acters indicate another species, and if so, whether the names 

 dayuidii or tectirodris are applicable to it." The species called B. tectirosti-u by 

 Cope is, as we have seen in a previous chapter, the Common Finback of the At- 

 lantic coast of North America, and identical with ^. j97«/.s«/2/.s\ The nominal species 

 known as B. diiguidii is also identical with B. 2)hl/.salus. The real question, there- 

 fore, is whether the Ocean City whale is the Sulphurbottom of Newfoundland, oi- 

 whether it represents B. phi/mlii-s, oi- belongs to an unknown species. 



Cope's summary is in three divisions, as follows: 



(1) "The Ocean City whale agrees with Bulmnoptera mvscrdi/s [= B. j)hysa- 

 Ittv (L)] in the form of the head, number of vertebi'se and ribs, proportions of pectoral 

 fin, and position of dorsal fin." 



(2) " It differs from this species [B. j^hysahis (L.)] and agrees with B. sibhaldll 

 [= B. tnuscnlus (L.)] in the size, coloi-, and in structure of the cervical vertebrae." 



(3) " It is intermediate between the two, as described by authors, in the 

 numbers of the phalanges of the manus." 



I shall endeavor to show that tlie points mentioned in the first division are 

 erroneous. The skeleton, when I saw it in 1900, was unmounted and lying on the 

 floor of one of the exhibition halls in the Philadelphia Academy. It was nearly 

 complete, but lacked several caudal vertebrae, the nasal bones, etc. The maxillaj 

 were sepai-ated fi'om the cranium. 



The first point made by Cope is that the form of the head agrees with B. 

 pkymlus lather than with B. musculus. In the course of his description he re- 

 marks {31} that the maxilhe " have the acuminate outline of those of B. musculus 

 [= B. physalus (L.)] rather than that of B. sibbaldU \= B. musculus (L.)]." As 

 a fact, exactly the opposite is ti-ue. The average breadth of the rostrum at the mid- 

 dle in American specimens of B. physalus, as seen in a pi'evious chapter (p. 133), 

 is 19.6 ^0 of the length of the skull. In the Ocean City skull the two maxilhie taken 

 togetheV, wifJiout the pmnax like or viedian interspace, have a breadth at the middle 

 of 19.2 % of the length of the skull. With a suitable allowance for the premaxilla^ 



' For a figure and brief description of this vvliale see Around the World, Jan., 1894, p. 40. 



