268 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



described by Carte and Macalister. The first is somewhat oblong in shape, with a strong 

 and firm wall, whose inner side is covered with transverse rugae, running from right to left, 

 with smaller secondary ridges. This communicates by a narrow aperture with the second 

 cavity which is largest of all, with thinner and more prominent rugae on its inner surface. 

 The third cavity is the smallest of all, and opens into the fourth through a curious valvular 

 aperture. The fourth division of the stomach is somewhat pear-shaped, and its lining smooth, 

 while the fifth is shghtly smaller, with glandular walls, and communicates with the duodenum 

 by a small pylorus guarded by a sphincter muscle. Turner (1892) corroborates Carte and 

 Macalister's description of the stomach as consisting of five separate compartments of which 

 the first and second are the largest and subequal, the third very small, the fourth and fifth 

 together about the size of the first. The third compartment is hardly apparent from the ex- 

 terior. Turner concludes that the first large compartment is a large paunch, or enlargement 

 of the oesophagus, serving as a sort of receptacle for the masses of food taken in; the second 

 compartment, as those succeeding it, are lined with reticulated mucous membrane, so that 

 they are the true digestive parts of the organ. The hepatic and pancreatic ducts unite at 

 about half an inch before entering the peritoneal covering of the intestine, after which the 

 conjoined duct runs obliquely some two inches between the coats of the intestine before opening 

 under a little hood-like fold of mucous membrane about 6.5 inches below the pylorus. The 

 small intestine measured about 81 feet in the 14-foot specimen, or about 5.8 times the length 

 of the animal, and so longer in proportion than in the Finback. Peyer's glands were present 

 both solitary and in scattered patches all through the ilium. A caecum about 8 inches long is 

 described by Carte and Macalister, lying on the right side of the body. The large intestine 

 was 3 feet 8 inches long. 



The liver is divided above into a smaller right and a larger left portion. In ventral aspect 

 the middle or Spigelian lobe of the liver appears. There is no gall bladder. The spleen is very 

 small. 



Skeleton. — The most noticeable differences shown by the skull, as compared with that of 

 the Common Finback are the following. The rostrum or that portion in front of the small 

 nasal bones is relatively very short and broad at base. Its sides are nearly straight, and they 

 converge rapidly to a sharp peak. The nasal opening is wide, and the nasals arc of character- 

 istic shape — blunt and squarely truncate at the anterior free edge, narrowing regularly behind. 

 The hinder margin of the broad frontal bone slopes to the rear instead of forward as in the 

 Common Finback. 



No adult skulls from the western Atlantic are available for measurement. True (1904) 

 gives percentages of the lengths of sundry parts referred to its total length, for a Massachu- 

 setts skull, but other than this there are no pul)lished measm-ements of New England speci- 

 mens. I have therefore appended a table giving various measurements of five New England 



