236 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



not so blue, however, as in the Sulphurbottom. Millais, with the advantage of an artist's 

 training, says its color in life is "dark sepia suffused with gray." Laterally the color pales 

 and becomes a dark steel gray along the sides of the body. A sharply denned white area begins 

 at the chin and extends along the middle of the belly to the genital region. On the breast the 

 white area is narrowed and sometimes quite cut across by encroachment of the color of the 

 sides. Behind the vent the body is bluish gray including the whole underside of the flukes. 

 The pectoral limbs are colored above like the back, but on their inferior surfaces they are a 

 trifle paler, with sometimes large whitish spots, though "never. . . .absolutely white." The 

 white of the belly is often asymmetrical in disposition. Collett describes numerous oval 

 blotches of a whitish color, appearing on the dark parts of the body, but Andrews (19 10) shows 

 that these are marks due to parasites (see Japha, 1905). 



A careful comparison is much to be desired between the coloration of this whale and that 

 of the Finback. To judge from descriptions Rudolphi's Rorqual has the white of the ventral 

 surfaces more restricted. Andrews (1916) in his monograph just issued has very fully de- 

 scribed color variation in Pacific specimens. 



Hair. In a foetus of this whale, Collett found two rows of seven hairs each, one on each 

 side of the rostrum. On the lower jaw were seventeen hairs on each side in three longitudinal 

 rows, consisting of three each in the upper and the lower rows, and eleven in the central row, 

 a total of 48 hairs. In an adult female, however, only two hairs were found on each side of 

 the upper jaw and on each lower jaw a row of eleven. According to Braun (1904) there are 

 about fifty hairs. Japha (1911) has investigated the microscopic structure of these, and found 

 that those on the chin were noticeably different from the others. Their bulb is not set so deeply 

 in the skin, and the nerve supply is richer, suggesting a tactile function. 



Baleen. The baleen or ' whalebone ' of this species is highly characteristic in appearance. 

 Its color is black, but the fringing bristles of the inner edge are whitish, and of a fine and fibrous 

 texture, almost like wool in comparison with the coarser whitish bristles of the Common Fin- 

 back. They form a very densely matted mass. In occasional individuals some of the anterior 

 plates may be wholly or partly white, and this condition may be nearly the same on both sides. 

 The number of plates, counting them from the exterior, is given by Collett as from 318 to 339. 

 In texture the baleen is said to be of finer quality than in any of the other Balaenopterae, and 

 is hence more valuable commercially. The longest plates occur at about the beginning of 

 the final third of the series, and may reach a length of 640 mm. (about 25 inches). 



External Measurements. No detailed measurements of New England or of Western 

 Atlantic specimens are available. Collett says that the largest one measured by him in Fin- 

 mark was 16.3 meters or 53.5 feet long, a male. The largest female he saw was but 14.7 meters 

 or 48.2 feet. Specimens as small as 10.1 meters (33.1 feet) were noted, but these may not have 

 been adult. The largest recorded Atlantic specimen was 57 feet long (Haldane). It is evident 



