CHAPTER VI. 
THE LITTLE PIKED WHALE, BALZNOPTERA ACUTO-ROSTRATA ULackpée. 
Sars’s diagnosis of this species is as follows: 
1. Length of full-grown individuals 20 to 30 feet. (Maximum 36 feet—Van 
Beneden.) 
2, Body less slender than in the other species of the genus, the greatest depth 
equalling } the length; behind the navel gradually narrower; tail with a rather 
high erest above and below. 
3. Color above and on the sides of the lower jaw gray-black; below white; 
dark color of the back descending obliquely behind the pectoral fins and occupying 
the greater part of the tail. 
4. Length of the mouth exceeding } the total length; upper jaw seen from 
above, becoming attenuated rapidly from the base, with the extremity acute, pale 
oray. 
~ “5. Pectoral fins small, scarcely exceeding 4 the total length, lanceolate, forming 
an obtuse angle posteriorly at about the middle of the length; the middle of the 
external surface with a broad transverse band of pure white, sharply defined 
proximally, less so distally ; base and tip black. 
6. Dorsal fin quite high, with the tip strongly curved backward, like a horn. 
It lies quite far forward with the anterior insertion at the commencement of the 
last third of the total length, and in advance of a vertical line drawn through the 
anus. 
7. Flukes below whitish, with irregular dark markings. 
8. Baleen entirely yellowish-white (79, 15). 
Plate 1 accompanying Sars’s memoir represents a female 144 ft. long, captured 
near Christiania, Norway, September, 1878. The original drawing was by Sars. 
It is an admirable figure in every respect, and corresponds exactly with the fore- 
going diagnosis. 
Dr. Collett added the following characters in the diagnosis of the species given 
by him in 1886: “Number of plates [of baleen] about 325; their greatest length 
about 200 mm., not including the bristles.” “Inner side [of the flippers] quite 
white” (21, 264). Bocourt’s figure of the Bretagne specimen (49, pl. 3), which is 
in most respects very satisfactory, shows a broader white band on the under surface 
of the pectoral than on the upper surface, with the margins nearly as well defined. 
As I am acquainted with but three specimens from the east coast of the 
United States which may be supposed to represent B. acuto-rostrata, I am unable 
to speak with any great degree of confidence regarding the matter of identity in 
this case. The three specimens referred to are as follows: 
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