148 BULLETIN 30, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



vertebrarterial canal is likewise an iudividual character. The variation 

 of one in the number of pairs of ribs is net considered of specific impor- 

 tance. The shortness of the muzzle in rhinodon is doubtless due to the 

 immaturity of the specimen. The amount of expansion of the vomer and 

 palatines in the median line is a character which varies greatly with age. 

 The question of the number of teeth presents some difficulties. I have 

 never seen a white whale skull with so few as four or six teeth. The 

 number in twelve skulls in the Museum varies from eight to eleven. 



As regards the relative positions of the anterior extremity of the ex- 

 posed prenareal portion of the maxilla and the maxillary notch it may 

 be said that in the twelve skulls mentioned above this part of the max- 

 illa appears at different points from almost exactly opposite the notch 

 to a point about midway between the line of the notches and the supe- 

 rior uares. 



On the whole I am inclined to reunite all of Professor Cope's species 

 under the original name and to hold that in the Arctic seas, at least, but 

 one species of white whale has been discovered. 



As regards Gray's D. Kingii, reported to have come from l!^ew Hol- 

 land, it can only be said that considering that no white whale has been 

 observed in the South seas, and that the type skull agrees with otheis 

 from northern waters, there is strong probability that the locality given 

 by Gray is erroneous. There is a skull in the national collection from 

 Pastolik, Alaska, near the mouth of the Yukon, which agrees almost ex- 

 actly with the tyi)e of D. Kingii. In both the length of the beak is about 

 40 per cent, of that of the skull, the breadth at the notch is a third of the 

 total length, and the breadth of the intermaxillai at the middle of the 

 beak equals the distance from the last tooth to the maxillary notch. 



Of Desmarest's Delphinus canadensis, founded on Duhamel'silfarsoMi/i 

 blanc, little need be said. Duhamel states that he never has himself 

 seen this animal nor any of the other porpoises which he figures. His 

 words are : 



Enfin ou iu'a envoy6 de Canada, sous le nom de Maitioidii hlanc, de douze piod« de 

 lougueur, le desseiu (fig. 4), qui avait le museau trcs petit et lo frout fort 61evc.* 



In the explanation of the plates he says : 



Celui, fig. 4, est nomme Marsouin hJanc. a cause de la couleur de sa poau ; il a le 

 front tres-gros.t 



All of Duhamel's figures of porpoises are very incorrect, and his rep- 

 resentation of the white whale resembles that animal perhaps as much 

 as those of the killer and the bottle-nose resemble those species. It is 

 unwise to give such obviously inaccurate figures serious consideration, 

 and it is certain that in the light of present knowledge, Desmarest would 

 not have erected a species ou the Marsouin blanc. 



* Duliauiel, Traitd des Pesches, vol. iv, pt. 2, sect, x, Cbap. ii, 17ri2, p. 41 (PI. x, 

 fig. 4). 



t L. c, p. 64. 



