THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 1S) 
The foregoing percentages indicate a remarkable conformity between the 
American and European specimens in proportions, and such as to be alone almost 
sufficient to settle once and for all the question of specific identity of this form of 
whale in the east and west Atlantic. The measurement of the flukes, however, 
shows a variation of 2 per cent. The importance of this is doubtful, as the measure- 
ments given by several European observers are not exact. Furthermore, the 
American measurements were not made by myself in more than two or three in- 
stances, but by an officer on the whaling steamer, as the flukes were generally cut 
off before the whales were towed into the station. 
COLOR. 
The descriptions of the color of BL. physalus given by European authors vary 
so much among themselves that one might suppose that there was a most extraor- 
dinary individual variation in this species, as well as a subspecific variation. It 
is true that there is a considerable individual variation in color in all species of 
whales, and no doubt L. physalus exhibits this peculiarity, but the differences 
which have been cited by authors are largely illusive. The species in question is 
sometimes said to be black above, at other times gray, or even brown, as shown in 
the following table: 
BALASNOPTERA PHYSALUS (L.). EUROPEAN. COLOR. 
Author. Date. Color. Remarks. 
BRIO ono oo8|| noone Deepyerayish-slate aboveruwiite  belowr --vaceerneecnl| a mince ciicecen & 
Van Beneden..| 1857 ? |All back gray-bluish ; all belly white.............. Found dead. Given 
at second hand. 
(Crouchrerrcicier 1891 | Upper parts blackish-slate ; under parts white ..... Seen two days after 
killed. 
(Corel vennana on 1884 |Gray-blue, or grayish slate-color on the back ; whole 
tin dersid. ev whites ecerierearis ceck es feoemiecsecie |. erctatieee's or 
Guldberg..... 1884 |Above blackish, or else gray-black; underneath |“‘ Now and then one 
white, with a grayish band passing over it....... meets with yellow- 
ish tinges.”’ 
Cocksmee-yee|koso) |IBlacksabove white below-. acces Jose. ss. cece see: Dead. ‘“ Bastard.” 
IDEN, S5e6000 LS sceuiblackwabover mw iltelDelowsper it eile cet ciecee Dead. 
Sarserraiesee ieellliteceretsers Rather light gray-brownish, passing over into sepia- 
(Sollalees tet. Gos 9 Acar nao ro.clo GeO Unt 0 OMI COD: CHE TIE TTT ME RTIEI Geeracie 
Sucutherss.e ee 1884 |Black on the back; white on the belly............ Nairn, Scotland. 
It is my opinion that 4. physalus is never black when alive. The fact is well 
known, and is commented upon by some of the authors above cited, that whales 
rapidly turn dark after death, and that descriptions of the color of stranded speci- 
mens are, therefore, unreliable. In the Finback whales the epidermis consists of 
several layers, of which the superficial one is the thickest. When one of these 
animals is killed and hauled out of the water, the superficial layer at once begins to 
grow darker, especially if the sun is shining. If a portion of this layer is peeled 
off, the lighter color of life is found again on the layer below, but in the course of 
