292 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTIf ATLANTIC. 



VERTEBRA. 



Of the vertebra?, Beddard remarks {2, 168): "The atlas was missing; the 

 remaiuing [cervical] vertebrie are quite independent of each other as in the Rorquals ; 

 and tliey have the wide latei'al foramina formed by the transverse processes, which 

 is so conspicuous a feature of those vertebi'se in Balcenojytera and Megapteray 

 Further than this the vertebrae have not been described. 



STERNUM AND LIMBS. 



The sternum is described by Beddard as " cross-shaped, but the arms of the 

 cross very short, and the posterior termination almost a fine point." 



According to Dall's notes, the scapula was in " breadth and height not very 

 different, with a short, broad coronoid pi-ocess, its head opposite first rib. Ap- 

 parently only 4 fingers, of which the second is the longest." 



Van Beueden remarked I'egarding this species in 1875: "It appears to us 

 demonstrated and confirmed to-day . . . that the Devilfish of the American 

 whalers is allied to the true whales by the absence of folds on the throat and of a 

 doi'sal fin, and by the presence of ciri'ipeds and Cyami on the skin ; and that it is 

 allied to the Finbacks by the shortness of the baleen and the shape of the ros- 

 tium." " It is neither a BaloBV-a, a BalmnopUra^ nor a Megaptera " {5, 36, 37). 



Bal^noptera davidsoni Scamraon. 



A nominal species which requires corapai'ison with B. acuto-rostrata is the B. 

 davidsoni of 8cammon, described in 1872 (81). Scammon described this species 

 again and figured it in his Marine Mammals (82, 49-51), and Mr. W. H. Dall 

 noted it in the appendix to this work, and gave measurements of a skull in the 

 museum of the California Academy of Sciences. Scammou's revised description is 

 substantially the same as the original one. A comparison of this description with 

 Sars's diagnosis and figure of B. acuio-rodrata indicates a close similarity. 



Scammon states, however, that in his species the white marking of the 

 pectoral is near the base. This is hardly true of B. acuto-rostrata, in which it 

 may he said to be near the middle. Scammon's figure corresponds with his descrip- 

 tion in this particular, and shows the white l)and as very naiTow, while in B. acuto- 

 rostrata, it occupies from one third to one half of the surface of the pectoral. If this 

 distinction were constant it would, of course, have a certain importance. Unfortu- 

 nately Scammon's description is not explicit on this point and his figure cannot be 

 relied upon in detail. For example, the shape of the head is entirely unlike any Fin- 

 back, and the lower lip is similarly incorrect. The same is true of the caudal region, 

 the dorsal fin, and the flukes. If these characters wei'e really as represented in 

 the figure, it would be necessary to remove the species from the genus Balcenoptera. 



The skull, however (of which more will be said later), is indistinguishable 

 generically, if not specifically, from B. acuto-rostrata. Nearly all the figures of 

 whales in Scammon's work were evidently "impi-oved" by the lithographers, with 

 the result that they must be regarded as to a certain extent diagrammatic. 



