178 



THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



BALJKNOPTERA MUSCULUS (L.). NEWFOUNDLAND. LENGTH OF WHALEBONE. 



Average 24.7 inches. 



The length 32 inches must be regarded as exceptional. In a lot of whalebone 

 stored in the yard at the station, the longest I could find was 27 inches, above the 

 gum, and without the bristles. As this was from a very large number of whales, 

 probably between 40 and 50, it seems singular that I should have encountered 

 longer whalebone in three instances in the whales I personally examined. I cannot 

 account for this except on the theory that the whalebone shrinks when exposed to 

 the air for a considerable time. 



In the Longniddry (Scotland) whale, the whalebone was reported by Turner 

 as 33 inches long, including the part imbedded in the gum, or about 29 inches 

 without it. 



The length of the longest bristles in a Newfoundland Sulphurbottom (length 

 77 ft. 2 in.) was 18 inches. 



HAIRS. 



The scattered hairs found on the head and mandible of foatal whales are not 

 always discoverable on the adults. In the majority of the Newfoundland Sulphur- 

 bottoms they were not noticed, but on No. 9, 9 (length 72 ft.), there was a row of 

 dirty white or yellowish hairs along the proximal half of the left ramus of the 

 mandible, and on the head a row starting with two from behind the blowholes, 

 curving around them on a semicircle to their anterior end and running thence to 

 the tip of the snout ; a second row of hairs was situated nearer the margin of the 

 jaw. In No. 23, ? (length 67 ft. 3 in.), a row of about 6 hairs, each in a raised 

 tubercle, occurred at the proximal end of the right ramus of the mandible. In sev- 

 eral specimens was to be noticed a vertical double row of yellowish hairs at the 

 symphysis of the mandible, the hairs themselves being about 3 in. apart. 



OSTEOLOGY. 



The skeleton of Balaenoptera musculm has been described by Flower (45, 

 410-414) under the name of Physalus latirosfo-is, and by Reinhardt (75), Van 



