196 'THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLAOSTTIC. 



of the flukes below are white. The under surface of the body is also white, 

 and the baleen is light-colored. The gular folds are about 60 in number, as in 

 B. acuto-rosPrata. 



The photographs agree well with the figure of B. acuto-rostrata (also from a 

 photograph) published by Sir Wm. Turner (92, 41, fig. 1), though the latter is un- 

 fortunately rather indistinct. The outward curve of the gular folds at the pos- 

 terior end is, however, well shown in both. Sir Wm. Turner states that in the 

 Granton specimen the white area of the upper surface of the pectoral was inter- 

 spersed with black blotches (92, 49). This would appear to have been the case 

 with the Quoddy Head specimen, but the photograph is unfortunately taken from 

 such a point of view that the upper surface of the pectoral cannot be well seen. 

 In Bocourt's figure the white is unspotted. 



SIZE. 



The maximum size of B. acuto-rostrata is given by various authors as 36 feet, 

 but I am not certain that this rests on actual measurements of specimens. Esch- 

 richt states that the Vaagehval may bear young when 23 ft. (Rheinland) long, and 

 is certainly full-grown when 27 to 29 ft. long (37, 170), and again that the 

 mature individuals, 24 to 29 or 30 ft. long, taken at the station near Bergen are as 

 a rule pregnant. The largest with which he was acquainted was the one stranded 

 in the Weser River, Germany, in 1669, which was 26f ft. long (Rheinland measure 

 = 27 ft. 5-s^ in., Eng.), and Lesson's specimen found at the mouth of the Charente 

 River, France, in 1835, which was 7.48 m., or 24 ft. 6 in. (Eug.) long. Turner's 

 Granton, Scotland, female was 28 ft. 4 in. long, and appears to be, therefore, the 

 largest recorded specimen. This was measured to the posterior margin of the 

 flukes. 



No full-grown American specimens have been recorded. 



OSTEOLOGICAL CHARACTERS. 



The data for the comparison of osteological characters are fuller and more 

 satisfactory. Van Beneden and Gervais (5), Van Bambeke (1), Carte and Mac- 

 alister (14), and other writers have given detailed descriptions of the skeletons of 

 European specimens of B. acuto-rostrata, and Sir William Turner has published 

 (92, 68) an admirable table of measurements of five skulls preserved in the Museum 

 of the University of Edinburgh, and has corrected errors in the observations of 

 earlier writers regarding these same specimens. 



SKULL. 



In comparing the dimensions of the skull of the Massachusetts specimen with 

 those of European specimens, we have been able to make use of Turner's table and 

 also to personally measure a skull (No. 13877) belonging to a skeleton in the Na- 

 tional Museum, from the coast of Norway. These measurements, with others, I 

 have reduced to percentages of the total length, and brought together with those 

 of the Massachusetts specimen, similarly treated, in the following table: 



