THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 179 



Beneden and Gervais (8), and others. Unfortunately, there is almost nothing in 

 the way of American material which can be compared with the European speci- 

 mens. The only skeleton in any of the museums of the United States is that of 

 the specimen stranded at Ocean City, New Jersey, in October, 1891, which is in 

 the collection of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. This whale was 

 examined and measured by Mr. J. C. Ives and myself, and was afterward the sub- 

 ject of an article by Cope (SI). 1 



The length of this specimen as it lay on the beach was 66 ft. 2 in. The un- 

 mounted skeleton at the Philadelphia Academy measures 52 ft. 2 in. as it lies, but 

 lacks the prernaxillae and one intermediate and probably three terminal caudal 

 vertebrae, and the bones are much too close together. 



Cope came to the conclusion that it combined the characters of B. pJiysaliis 

 and B. musculus, and remarked in closing his article : " It remains to be ascertained 

 whether these characters indicate another species, and if so, whether the names 

 dugmdii or tectirostris are applicable to it." The species called B. tectirostris by 

 Cope is, as we have seen in a previous chapter, the Common Finback of the At- 

 lantic coast of North America, and identical with B. physalus. The nominal species 

 known as B. duguidii is also identical with B. physalus. The real question, there- 

 fore, is whether the Ocean City whale is the Sulphurbottom of Newfoundland, or 

 whether it represents B. physalus, or belongs to an unknown species. 



Cope's summary is in three divisions, as follows: 



(1) "The Ocean City whale agrees with Balaenoptera musculus [= B. physa- 

 lus (L.)] in the form of the head, number of vertebras and ribs, proportions of pectoral 

 fin, and position of dorsal fin." 



(2) " It differs from this species [B. physalus (L.)] and agrees with B. sibbaldii 

 [= B. musculus (X.)] in the size, color, and in structure of the cervical vertebras." 



(3) "It is intermediate between the two, as described by authors, in the 

 numbers of the phalanges of the manus." 



I shall endeavor to show that the points mentioned in the first division are 

 erroneous. The skeleton, when I saw it in 1900, was unmoiinted and lying on the 

 floor of one of the exhibition halls in the Philadelphia Academy. It was nearly 

 complete, but lacked several caudal vertebrae, the nasal bones, etc. The maxillae 

 were separated from the cranium. 



The first point made by Cope is that the form of the head agrees with B. 

 physalus rather than with B. musculus. In the course of his description he re- 

 marks (31) that the maxillae " have the acuminate outline of those of B. musculus 

 [= B. physalus (L.)] rather than that of B. sibbaldii [= B. musculus (L.)]." As 

 a fact, exactly the opposite is true. The average breadth of the rostrum at the mid- 

 dle in American specimens of B. physalus, as seen in a previous chapter (p. 133), 

 is 19.6 % of the length of the skull. In the Ocean City skull the two maxillae taken 

 together, without the premaxillce or median interspace, have a breadth at the middle 

 of 19.2 f e of the length of the skull. With a suitable allowance for the premaxillae 



1 For a figure and brief description of this whale see Around the World, Jan., 1894, p. 40. 



