124 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



in the number of ossicles that may be present, imbedded in the mass of cartilage between the 

 arm bones and the metacarpals. Holder (1883, Plate 12) in his figure of a Long Island skeleton 

 shows no less than eight carpals in addition to a pisiform bone, the latter a prominent cyUndrical 

 knob at the ulnar margin. There is no probability that their relative positions are correctly 

 delineated in this figure. Manigault was unable to discover any in the Charleston, S. C, 

 whale, though it is probable that they were lost or destroyed in maceration. Andrews (1908) 

 in the two Long Island whales, found five distinct rounded ossifications in the right carpus and 

 four in the left in one specimen ; four in the right and three in the left in the other. The homol- 

 ogy of these bones is yet to be thoroughly worked out. There appear to be three bones in the 

 proximal row corresponding to *he radiale, intermedium, and ulnare, but those of the distal 

 row are not so readily homologized. No doubt in young or immature specimens these ossifica- 

 tion centers are so poorly developed as to be hardly discernible in many instances. 



The number of metacarpals and phalanges in the several fingers is best determinable by 

 careful dissection of the pectoral limb itself, rather than from mounted specimens. This method 

 was used by Andrews (1908) who found in a Long Island specimen, the following (Roman 

 numerals signify the several digits, Arabic numerals the number of phalangeal pieces) : I 1, II 4, 

 III 5, IV 4, V 3. While this formula is undoubtedly correct, the mounted specimens in Ameri- 

 can museums as cited by True (1904, p. 261) show a possible variation, which if actually pres- 

 ent, indicates an extra phalanx at times in case of digits I, and V or one less in case of digit IV. 



A peculiar interest attaches to the vestiges of the pelvic girdle and hind limbs. These are 

 found imbedded deep in the flesh nearly dorsal to the anus. Two small and somewhat cres- 

 centic bones with their concavity inward, and placed parallel with each other on the opposite 

 sides of the body, are the remains of the pelvic girdle. In the Provincetown 1864 specimen 

 the length of one of these bones is 220 mm., its greatest width where it expands near the posterior 

 end, 70 mm. The anterior two thirds is expanded, the posterior third cylindrical. In a Long 

 Island specimen the right pelvic bone was 450 mm. long, the left 435. "Each had attached to 

 it a vestigial femur, — a flattened bone, 135 mm. long, 58 mm. wide, and 10 to 28 mm. thick, 

 parallel-sided for about half the length, with one entire side straight, the other sloping at an 

 obtuse angle" (Allen, 1908, p. 329). These bones are figured by Dr. J. A. Allen. That these 

 vestiges of the pelvis still remain is prol^ably because of their being of use for the attachment 

 of certain small muscles, as the crus penis in the male. Abel (1908) in his monograph on the 

 pelvic bones of Cetacea gives two excellent figures of these elements in place, from an Icelandic 

 specimen. One is more nearly an isosceles triangle than the other, but in both the apex of the 

 triangular bone is to the exterior. The anterior portion corresponds to the ilium, the posterior 

 to the ischium. Just behind this apex is a shallow acetabular cavity, into which fits the head 

 of the vestigial femur, which is a short cylindrical bone, with the head slightly constricted off 

 and with a distinct postero-lateral ridge, representing the great trochanter. Attached to 



