110 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 
Color of upper surface of pectorals (normal ). 
Light slate-color, tipped with white at extreme distal edge. (Cooxs.) 
Same dark color as the back. (Sars.) 
Variation: “Blue, with almost a brownish tinge at the proximal end.” 
(Cocks, “ Hybrid Whale.”) 
Dingy black. (Murr. Specimen some time dead.) 
Color of lower surface of pectorals (normal ). 
White. 
Lower surface and whole anterior margin white. (Sars.) 
Variation: White running over the anterior margin, and the gray of the 
upper surface overspreading the under surface posteriorly and proximally. (Cocks.) 
Whitish. (Murm. Specimen some time dead.) 
Color of upper surface of flukes (normal). 
Dull black. (Cocxs.) 
Color of lower surface of flukes (normal ). 
White. 
Pure white; with sharply defined dark margin. (Sars.) 
Variation: Shading through streaks of gray to a little white about the center 
of each lobe. (Cocks.) 
Average length of longest baleen, without bristles. 
Less than 8 feet. (GuULDBERG.) 
30 inches. (Murir.) 
Mean number of plates of baleen on one side. 
360. (Muriz.) 
Color of baleen plates (normal ). 
Black on the outer edge, then slate, gradually striping to yellow on the inner 
margin. (Cocks.) 
Blue-gray, with light stripes. (GuLDBERG.) 
Foremost blades yellow, or grayish white. (GULDBERG.) 
(In Ravry’s specimen the anterior third of the series all whitish, the remainder 
all slate-gray ; the transition abrupt.) 
Color of bristles of baleen (normal ). 
Yellow, almost buff. (Cocks.) 
It has been recognized for a long time that a species closely resembling B. 
physalus, if not identical with it, occurs on the east coast of America, from Green- 
