134 BULLETIN 36, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Salem, Mass. There are in the Museum collections some six or eight 

 skulls, three skeletons, and two casts of specimens from Cape Cod, Mas- 

 sachusetts, and also some ten photographs of different schools which 

 have stranded from time to time near Provincetowu, at the extremity 

 of the Cape. In external appearance the specimens photographed cor- 

 respond to Harlan's description and very crude figure, and on the other 

 hand they correspond exactly. to the individuals from European waters 

 figured by Murie, Couch, and Cuvier. All the individuals of which 

 the under surface of the body is shown in the; photographs (some twenty 

 or more), without exception, have the peculiar white mark on the throat 

 and median line of the belly, represented in Cuvier's figure, ilar- 

 lan's statement, that the length of the dorsal fin is only one thirteenth 

 of the total length, seems to be based on a measurement of the figure, 

 which is certainly incorrect as regards the dorsal. In the skeleton the 

 vertebral formula is the same as that given by Flower for G. melas* 

 In two complete skeletons the formula is as follows : No. 14417 : C. 7, D. 

 11, L. 14, Ca. 27=59. No. 20958: C. 7, D. 11, L. 13, Ca. 29=00. 



The teeth in six skulls are as follows ; 



-11 9-9 10—10 



10—10 ?— ? ?— ? 9—9 10—10* 



The number ^ to |^ would therefore appear to be the average, which 

 s also the number commonly found in European si)ecimens. A skull 

 from Cape Cod presents the following proportions as compared with 

 the specimen from Paimpol, of which measurements are given by 

 Fischer, p. 188 : 



Measurements. 



Total length 



Extremity of beak to antei ior marjiin snperior narea 



Extremity <if bonk to maxillary notches 



Breadtli of <'raiiiuiu liei weeii ^lOst-orbital processes of frontal . 



Breadth of btak at lia'^o 



Breadth of beak at middle 



Measurements of other specimens from Cape Cod will be found in the 

 table on p. 136. 



There seems to be on the whole no good reason for considering the 

 blackfish of New England as specifically distinct from that of European 

 waters. 



OloMcephalus affinis Gray. 



This species is founded on a single skull. No. 2999, in the College of 

 Surgeons. The locality from whence it was derived is unknown. The 

 skull, which is 02.5'''" long and has the teeth \l^\l, seems to difi'er from 

 the ordinary G. melas simply in having the intermaxilhe somewhat 



' P. z. S., 1883, p. r>08. 



