108 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



" Color above and also on the left side of the under jaw quite light gray, 

 brownish, or passing into sepia color. The color of the back, as in the Little Piked 

 whale, descends obliquely from the pectoral fins across the sides of the body, and 

 on the part lying behind the vent there is only a very narrow and sharply defined 

 white stripe along the ventral side. 



" The length of the mouth is about equal to the total length, and the upper 

 jaw seen from above is quite narrow, conical, or uniformly decreasing in breadth 

 toward the tip. 



" The pectoral fins are very small, scarcely exceeding ^ the total length, narrow, 

 lanceolate, with the posterior angle unusually little prominent. On its outer side 

 showing the color of the back, but the inner side and the whole of the anterior 

 border pure white. 



" Dorsal fin proportionally rather high (at least in males) and of a triangular 

 form, with the tip not strongly curved, and directed obliquely backward. It lies 

 rather far back, immediately behind a vertical line drawn through the anus. 



" Flukes, pure white on the lower surface, with dark margins. 



"Whalebone, dark bluish and somewhat variegated, but with the exception 

 that some of the most anterior of it is yellowish white as in the Little Piked whale." 



In preparing for my first trip to the Newfoundland fishery at Snook's Arm, I 

 brought together in abstract form all the principal external characters assigned to 

 this species by the more recent European authorities, and for convenience of refer- 

 ence they are given in brief form below : 



Average total length. 



81 males = 62 ft. 7 in. (COCKS, from whalers.) 

 105 females = 64 ft. 1^- in. (CocKS, from whalers.) 



Mean total length. 



60 to 70 ft. (GULDBERG.) 



Maximum total length. 

 Male, 72 ft. 1 in. (CocKS.) 

 Female (" bastard "), 80 ft. 6 in. (COCKS.) 



Proportion of length of jaws to total length (average.) 



20.8 per cent. (F. w. T., compiled.) 



(Length of mouth from tip of lower jaw = ^ the total length = 20 per cent. 

 SARS.) 



Variation: Length of mouth = 19.5 to 22.5 per cent. (F. w. T., compiled.) 



Proportion of length of pectoral (from axilla) to total length (average). 



10.5 per cent. (F. w. T., compiled.) 



^ to % = 10 per cent, to 11 per cent. (GULDBERG.) 



J- = 11.1 per cent. (SAKS.) 



Variation: 9.9 to 11.3 per cent. (F. w. T., compiled.) 



(Flower gives 8.7 per cent, for the Portsmouth, England, specimen, 1869.) 



