232 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIO. 
OSTEOLOGY. 
Several skeletons of Humpbacks from the east coast of North America are 
preserved in the museums of the United States. I have examined the type of 
Megaptera osphyia Cope, taken off the Maine coast, the type of IZ. bellicosa from 
the West Indies, and two skeletons in the National Museum from Cape Cod, Mass., 
viz.: No. 16252, young female, and No, 21492. For the Greenland Humpback, 
we have Eschricht’s description and figures (36 to 39). For the European Hump- 
back, the best descriptions are Rudolphi’s account of the type of IZ. longimana 
(76), and Struthers’s elaborate study of the Tay River, Scotland, whale (87). 
Flower’s well-known paper on the skeletons in the museums of Holland and Bel- 
gium contains valuable information (45); also Van Beneden and Gervais’s Osté- 
ographie (8), Fischer’s Cétacés du Sud Ouest de la France (44), and other works 
of European naturalists. (See pls. 29 to 36.) 
NUMBER OF VERTEBR&. 
The various skeletons of Humpbacks from the North Atlantic, both European 
and American, thus far examined present the following vertebral formule: 
MEGAPTERA NODOSA (BONNATERRE). EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN. VERTEBRAL FORMULA. 
| 
| Sex 
Locality. Date.| and |C.| D.}| L.| Ca. |Total.| Authority. Remarks. 
Age. 
Vogelsand, Germany....... |182 6 !7| 14} 11] 22 |54 | Rudolphi | Type of JZ. longimana. 
Tay River, Scotland....... 1883 | 6 |7|14| 10] 21 |52 | Struthers 
Coastiot Maines. es e-riree: |7844 |....|7] 14) 10] 17+] 48+] True Type of MZ. osphyza. 
Provincetown, Mass., 16252./1879 |?jr.7|14|11]19 | 51 True U.S. Nat. Mus. 
Cape Cod, Mass., 21492..../1878?)....| 7) 14 | 10 | 19+] 50+] True -: “5 
Wiestalivdiesteyn-se erste everest seater soon 7 al) Rope Gi || (Coin Type of WW. bellicosa. 
Greenlandiremnecetteer eer ani et4a |e Petes oleeEschinichit [ Restored. 
Seo § he ee a7) 40) —sle—s seh) |ebrscher Louvain Mus. 
oe oo Sriac aot cuntas uaa as al met |p || Ba P= - Brussels Mus. 
PM Paani. ap sag nooo) aco dal (bo ae 7/14] 11|2r |53 | Lilljeborg| Lund Mus. 
The agreement in number of dorsal vertebre is complete, of lumbars prac- 
tically so, and of caudals so nearly that the differences may be regarded as indi- 
vidual, or due to imperfection in the specimens. The normal formula would 
appear to be : 
C. 7, D. 14, L. 11, Ca. 21 = 53. 
The following, however, is quite likely to occur as frequently, if a larger num- 
ber of specimens should be examined : 
C. 7, D. 14, L.10, Ca. 21 = 52. 
* Flower (47) gives 31. 
*Van Beneden (8, 126) also gives 53 as the total number of vertebra in this specimen, My 
own notes on the skeleton, made in 1884, give 52 as the total, and this number is shown in the 
atlas of the Ostéographie (pls. 10 and 11, fig. 1), viz.,C. 7, D. 14, L. 10, Ca, 21 =52. It is No. 
269 in the Brussels Museum. 
