THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTEBN NORTH ATLANTIC. 199 



temporal. In these two particulars it agrees with Capellini's figures, and one is 

 led to infer that in the skull examined by Carte and Macalister the malar was 

 reversed and out of its natural position. Eschricht's figures (37, pi. 9) agrees with 

 Capellini's and with the Massachusetts skull. In the latter the lachrymal is want- 

 ing, but the malar has an anterior flat process which fits in between the maxillary 

 and frontal, and may be supposed to represent the lachrymal, which has become 

 fused with the malar. (See plate 26, fig. 2.) 



In the details mentioned above, the shape of the nasals, maxillse, etc. Capel- 

 Hni's figure agrees rather with the American skull than with the Norwegian, while 

 Eschricht's figure corresponds most closely with the latter. It should be remem- 

 bered that the Massachusetts skull and that figured by Capellini are from young 

 individuals, while the Norwegian skull in the National Museum and that figured by 

 Eschricht are from adults. It is probable that some of the differences observable 

 are due to age. 



On the whole, there is nothing tangible on which to base a distinction be- 

 tween the American and European specimens, while in proportions, as shown by Sir 

 Wm. Turner's measurements, there is the closest agreement, amounting to identity. 

 A separation of American and European specimens on the basis of cranial characters 

 does not, therefore, seem warranted. 



SKELETON. 



Of the descriptions of the skeleton of the European B. acuto-rostrata given by 

 Van Beneden and Gervais, Van Bambeke, Carte and Macalister, and other writers, 

 two, three, or all agree in assigning to B. acuto-rostrata the following characters : 

 Neural spine of the atlas very short or rudimentary ; spine of the axis larger, and 

 its parapophyses and diapophyses united to form a bony ring; diapophyses of the 

 7th cervical next in size to those of the axis, and followed by those of the 6th cer- 

 vical ; neural spines of the 3d to the 5th cervicals rudimentary; parapophysis of 

 the 7th cervical reduced to a tubercle ; diapophyses of the 3d to the 5th cervicals 

 directed backward, those of the 6th and 7th cervicals forward ; centra of the lum- 

 bars increase in length from the beginning to the end of the series ; inferior process 

 on last lumbar strong; lumbar neural spines at the maximum as regards size; lum- 

 bar diapophyses equal to those of the last dorsal ; caudal centra not longer than 

 those of the lumbars ; last caudal diapophysis and neural spine on the 36th verte- 

 bra ; neural spine replaced by a trough on the 39th vertebra ; first vertebra with 

 perforated diapophysis, the 35th ; chevrons, nine, decreasing in length from 2d to 

 9th, the 1st small, 1-J- times the length of the second, the 2d longest, and the 3d 

 broadest antero-posteriorly ; ribs increasing in length from 1st to 4th, the first short- 

 est and widest; scapula with the acromion recurved. 



The skeleton from the coast of Massachusetts, No. 20931 (plate 27, fig. 2), pre- 

 sents the majority of these characters, but shows the following slight variations: 

 The diapophyses of the 3d to 5th cervicals are transverse rather than directed 

 backward. The 4th, 5th, and 6th pairs of ribs are of the same length (26 inches in a 

 straight line) and are the longest of the series. 



