130 



THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



more or less apart. The furrows on the mandible appear to remain always open, 

 and the skin at their base is smooth and hard, while that of the breast furrows is 

 soft and obliquely wrinkled. 



The ridges, as already remarked, anastomose irregularly and to a varying degree 

 in different individuals. Many pairs coalesce near the posterior end, so that the 

 total number of ridges here is much less than on the breast. 



The color of the ridges and that of the intervening furrows do not always 

 agree. Where there is a solid area of dark gray on the ridges, the furrows are also 

 dark. Where the dark color of the ridges breaks up into blotches, that of the 

 furrows commonly remains uniformly dark for a considerable distance farther 

 toward the median line of the belly. Finally, however, it also breaks up into 

 blotches ; and along the median line both furrows and ridges are pure white. In a 

 few cases there are moderate-sized areas of gray on the ridges where the furrows 

 are entirely white, but this condition is of much less frequent occurrence than the 

 opposite. 



AURICULAR ORIFICE. 



As is well known, the whales are without an external ear-conch. The external 

 auricular orifice is in the form of a small oblong, or occasionally circular, opening, 

 situated at a short distance behind the eye and nearly in the same horizontal plane. 

 In the Newfoundland Finbacks the orifice is about 3 in. long and varies somewhat 

 in position in different individuals, as will be evident from an inspection of the 

 following table: 



BAL&tfOPTERA PHYSALUS (L.). NEWFOUNDLAND. 



EYE. 



In the Newfoundland Finbacks there is always a ridge, bounded above and 

 below by converging furrows, at the anterior commissure of the eyelids, and one or 

 two short furrows both above and below the eye. (See pi. 9, fig. 5.) In No. 2, 

 9 , the orifice between the lids was 3^ in. long, the long axis of the iris 2 in., the 

 long axis of the pupil in., and the diameter of the eyeball 5 in. In No. 16 



