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52 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC, 
agreeing better with Gasco’s figures. Another important difference in Graells’s 
figures, as compared with those of Gasco, is that the anterior ends of the pre- 
maxille are represented as narrow and acuminate. Graells’s figures are reproduc- 
tions of drawings by Sr. Janer, while in Gasco’s figures the outlines are taken 
from photographs, “to avoid inexactness.” This latter may, therefore, be con- 
sidered the more reliable. : 
Gasco’s figures (47, pl. 2, figs. 1 and 2; pl. 3, fig. 1) of the Taranto (Italy) 
whale show a very close agreement with the skull of the specimen from Long 
Island (New York) in the National Museum, No. 25077, pls. 42 and 43. The figures 
of the under surface of the skull especially (allowance being made for the slightly 
different point of view) show a very complete agreement. No one on comparing 
these several figures can, I think, fail to be convinced that they represent one and 
the same species. This is a matter of great importance, because, as will be pointed 
out presently, the measurements of the American and the European skulls vary 
considerably among themselves. The causes of this variation will be considered later. 
I personally compared the skull of the Long Island (N. Y.) specimen in 
the American Museum of Natural History, New York, with photographs of the 
Long Island skull in the National Museum, No. 23077, and was unable to discover 
any differences of importance. In Holder's figure of the former (67, pl. 12) the 
superior outline of the rostrum does not descend rapidly enough anteriorly, due 
perhaps to the intermaxille not being represented as thick at the middle as they 
really are. In most other respects the figure is a good representation of the skull. 
In one character Gasco’s figure of the Taranto (Italy) skull differs from the 
American skulls I have examined. The premaxille extend so far back as to pre- 
vent the union of the maxillze with the median anterior prolongation of the frontal 
at the vertex. In the American skulls in the Washington, Philadelphia, and 
Raleigh museums the premaxille are shorter posteriorly and the maxillx project 
inward toward the median line along the sides of the nasal process of the frontal. 
This may, I think, be regarded rather as an individual variation than as a character 
of specific importance. In Graells’s figure (52, pl. 4, fig. 2) the relation of the parts, 
as represented, agrees with the American skulls above mentioned. 
The general shape of the nasals in the Taranto (Italy) and Guetaria (Spain) 
skulls is the same as in the Long Island (N. Y.) skull in the National Museum, 
No. 28077, except that there is a difference in proportions in the case 
of the Taranto specimen, as represented in Gasco’s figure (47, pl. 4, fig. 9). 
Indeed, the nasals appear to differ in proportions in all the specimens, no 
two being exactly alike. In the type of B. césarctica the nasals have the 
same emargination of the distal free border as in other American and 
European specimens, as shown in text fig. 84. The convex exterior bor- 
Fic, 9g, der is in part overlaid by the intermaxilla when the nasal is in position, 
so that the latter then appears rectilinear in outline, as in other specimens. 
The variation in length and breadth in the different specimens is in part due to the un- 
equal development of the median portion of the frontal against which the nasals rest. 
The proportions of the various American and European skulls are indicated 
by the measurements given in the following table: 
