196 ‘THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 
of the flukes below are white. The under surface of the body is also white, 
and the baleen is light-colored. The gular folds are about 60 in number, as in 
B. acuto-rostrata. 
The photographs agree well with the figure of B. acuto-rostrata (also from a 
photograph) published by Sir Wm. Turner (92, 41, fig. 1), though the latter is un- 
fortunately rather indistinct. The outward curve of the gular folds at the pos- 
terior end is, however, well shown in both. Sir Wm. Turner states that in the 
Granton specimen the white area of the upper surface of the pectoral was inter- 
spersed with black blotches (92, 49). This would appear to have been the case 
with the Quoddy Head specimen, but the photograph is unfortunately taken from 
such a point of view that the upper surface of the pectoral cannot be well seen. 
In Bocourt’s figure the white is unspotted. 
SIZE. 
The maximum size of B. acuto-rostrata is given by various authors as 36 feet, 
but I am not certain that this rests on actual measurements of specimens. Esch- 
richt states that the Vaagehval may bear young when 23 ft. (Rheinland) long, and 
is certainly full-grown when 27 to 29 ft. long (87, 170), and again that the 
mature individuals, 24 to 29 or 30 ft. long, taken at the station near Bergen are as 
a rule pregnant. The largest with which he was acquainted was the one stranded 
in the Weser River, Germany, in 1669, which was 26% ft. long (Rheinland measure 
—27 ft. 5} in., Eng.), and Lesson’s specimen found at the mouth of the Charente 
River, France, in 1835, which was 7.48 m., or 24 ft. 6 in. (Eng.) long. Turner’s 
Granton, Scotland, female was 28 ft. 4 in. long, and appears to be, therefore, the 
largest recorded specimen. This was measured to the posterior margin of the 
flukes. 
No full-grown American specimens have been recorded. 
OSTEOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 
The data for the comparison of osteological characters are fuller and more 
satisfactory. Wan Beneden and Gervais (8), Van Bambeke (1), Carte and Mac- 
alister (14), and other writers have given detailed descriptions of the skeletons of 
European specimens of 2. acuto-rostrata, and Sir William Turner has published 
(92, 68) an admirable table of measurements of five skulls preserved in the Museum 
of the University of Edinburgh, and has corrected errors in the observations of 
earlier writers regarding these same specimens. 
SKULL. 
In comparing the dimensions of the skull of the Massachusetts specimen with 
those of European specimens, we have been able to make use of Turner’s table and 
also to personally measure a skull (No. 13877) belonging to a skeleton in the Na- 
tional Museum, from the coast of Norway. These measurements, with others, I 
have reduced to percentages of the total length, and brought together with those 
of the Massachusetts specimen, similarly treated, in the following table: 
