4 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NOBTH ATLANTIC. 



The National Museum has incurred no small expense in obtaining the photo- 

 graphs of the types and other specimens, and I am also indebted to the following 

 museum officials for courtesies, for which I desire to express my very sincere thanks : 

 To Dr. S. Gr. Dixon, President of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 and Mr. Witmer Stone, for assistance in locating the types of Cope's species and 

 other interesting specimens, and permission to study and photograph them ; to the 

 proprietor of the Niagara Falls Museum, for permission to photograph and study 

 the type of Megaptera osphyia; to the director of the Field Columbian Museum 

 and Dr. D. Gr. Elliot, for photographs and measurements of the skeleton of Balcena 

 in that museum ; to Mr. H. H. Brimley, Curator of the State Museum, Raleigh, 

 N. C., for assistance in measuring the skeleton of Balcena in that institution and for 

 photographs ; to the director of the American Museum of Natural History and Mr. 

 Sherwood, for measurements and photographs of the Balcena skeleton in that 

 museum; to Dr. Horace Jayne and Dr. Grreenman, for assistance in measuring the 

 fine skeleton of Balcenoptem in the Wistar Institute, University of Pennsylvania, 

 and permission to take photographs of it; to the director of the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology and Mr. Outram Bangs, for photographs of Balcena, and for other 

 aid ; to Prof. Greo. H. Ashley, for assistance in measuring the skeleton of Balcena 

 in the Charleston College Museum, South Carolina ; to Mr. F. A. Ward of Ward's 

 Natural Science Establishment, Rochester, N. Y. 



I wish to express appreciation also especially for the opportunities afforded 

 me by the Cabot Steam Whaling Company of St. John's, Newfoundland, through 

 the late Honorable A. W. Harvey, President of the Company, Mr. John Harvey, Sec- 

 retary, Dr. A. Nielsen, Manager, and Captain Bull. Through the friendly co-opera- 

 tion of these gentlemen I was enabled to pursue my investigations under conditions 

 which were quite exceptional. I also owe to Dr. L. Rissmiiller a debt of gratitude 

 for his enthusiastic forwarding of my desires in the matter of obtaining information 

 and specimens. Mr. D. C. Beard permitted me to examine some interesting photo- 

 graphs and sketches of the Balcena figured in Holder's article on that genus ; and 

 Mrs. W. E. Grain allowed me to reproduce her valuable copyrighted photographs 

 of a West Coast Humpback. 



In regard to the system of measurements used in this work and the use of 

 English rather than metric measures, a word is perhaps called for. In measuring 

 whales at the Newfoundland stations, I adopted for the total length the distance 

 from the tip of the upper jaw to the notch of the flukes, measured along the back. 

 I adopted this for two reasons : first, because it gave rigid points from which to 

 measure, and, second, because it is nearly impossible under ordinary circumstances 

 to have a whale placed so as to be in exactly a straight line from head to flukes, 

 and measuring between uprights is less expeditious than along the curves. Stranded 

 whales are almost invariably measured in this way, and hence the measurements 

 recorded in the literature can be more advantageously compared by employing the 

 curvilinear total length rather than the rectilinear. The difference between the 

 two is, in fact, much less than would be anticipated. In the tables included in 

 this work, I have been obliged in some cases to cite lengths without knowing what 



