THE WHALEBONE WHALES 01<' THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



231 



"In colour, the wliiilebone on tlie outside was Ijlack, except along the front 12 

 inches where it was partly- white, mottled, but differing in this respect on the right 

 and left sides. On the left jaw here, at 6 inches from the mesial line, 15 plates are 

 quite white on their anterior [outer] half Init black on the palatal half. Some near 

 these, again, have the anterior edge black, and the rest of their surfaces white. 

 Viewed from the palatal as{)ect, the whole matting of hairs was whitish. The 

 words in my note-book are ' white, dirty-white, or j'ellow-white.' Now, in 1887, 

 after 3 years' exposure, though washed clean, that description could not apjily. 

 The colour of the hairy matting now is dirty-brown mixed with brown-black. The 

 hairs are fully 4 inches in length, some 6 inches. The hairs of the fringe are thick 

 and stiff, like bristles, compared with those of my 50-feet-loiig B. muaculus \j= B . 

 physalus], but the much finer hairs of the matting on the palatal aspect do not differ 

 in thickness in these two whales." 



This description applies well to the Newfoundland Hum[>backs which I ob- 

 served in 1899. In No. 5, $ , the right whalebone was all grayish-black, except 

 from the anterior end backward about one foot, where it was dull whitish. The 

 bristles along the exterior were of the same grayish-black color, but their matted 

 interior surface was lighter, with here and there a small area still much lighter. In 

 No. 6, 2 , the most internal bristles were gray-brown, the next lot exteriorly, whitish, 

 then a pale pink-gi'ay baud, and finally the exterior ones part whitish and part gray. 

 The general effect in looking into the mouth was that of dark gray for 4 inches 

 next to the roof of the mouth, succeeded by lighter coloi-. A few anterior blades 

 of whalebone were white externally. In both specimens the extei-nal edge of the 

 blades was veiy rough, much more so than in Balmnoptem 2>ltysahis. 



Eschricht describes the whalebone of the Greenland Humpback as " entirely 

 dark in color, when dry black-brown or black, the bristles brownish " {37, 147). 

 In another place he remarks : " I have received more or less complete sets of whale- 

 bone of many young and old Kepoi'haks, part in brine, part dried. They were all 

 dai'k colored, when di'ied almost black, when preserved moist in salt, the small internal 

 plates {Nebenharten) more or less gray in part, the bristles almost always brown. 

 On each side are about 400 plates. The length of the whalebone scarcely exceeds 

 2 feet" (57, 93). 



The size of the whalebone in different European and American specimens is 



shown in the following table : 



BALMNOPTERA ACUTO-BOSTRATA LAC. EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN. WHALEBONE. 



Locality. 



Tay River, Scotland 



Norway 



Greenland ■ ■ • 



Dee River, England 



Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland. . . 



Length of 

 Whale. 



40 o 



31 o 



42' 2" 

 45' S" 



Length of 



Longest 



Whalebone. 



Length of 

 Longest 

 Bristles. 



20 



24 + 

 24 + 



24' 

 21 



22 



in. 



5 



Greatest 

 Breadth. 



in. 



5 



Author. 



Struthers 

 Guldberg 

 Eschricht 



Moore 

 F. W. T. 

 F. W. T. 



' " Nearly 2 feet long.' 



