THE WHALEBONE WHALES OP THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



231 



" In colour, the whalebone on the outside was black, except along the front 12 

 inches where it was partly white, mottled, but differing in this respect on the right 

 and left sides. On the left jaw here, at 6 inches from the mesial line, 15 plates are 

 quite white on their anterior [outer] half but black on the palatal half. Some near 

 these, again, have the anterior edge black, and the rest of their surfaces white. 

 Viewed from the palatal aspect, the whole matting of hairs was whitish. The 

 words in my note-book are 'white, dirty-white, or yellow-white.' Now, in 1887, 

 after 3 years' exposure, though washed clean, that description could not apply. 

 The colour of the hairy matting now is dirty-brown mixed with brown-black. The 

 hairs are fully 4 inches in length, some 6 inches. The hairs of the fringe are thick 

 and stiff, like bristles, compared with those of my 50-feet-long B. musculus [=-#- 

 physalus], but the much finer hairs of the matting on the palatal aspect do not differ 

 in thickness in these two whales." 



This description applies well to the Newfoundland Humpbacks which I ob- 

 served in 1899. In No. 5, $, the right whalebone was all grayish -black, except 

 from the anterior end backward about one foot, where it was dull whitish. The 

 bristles along the exterior were of the same grayish-black color, but their matted 

 interior surface was lighter, with here and there a small area still much lighter. In 

 No. 6, ? , the most internal bristles were gray-brown, the next lot exteriorly, whitish, 

 then a pale pink-gray band, and finally the exterior ones part whitish and part gray. 

 The general effect in looking into the mouth was that of dark gray for 4 inches 

 next to the roof of the mouth, succeeded by lighter color. A few anterior blades 

 of whalebone were white externally. In both specimens the external edge of the 

 blades was very rough, much more so than in Salcenoptera pJiysalus. 



Eschricht describes the whalebone of the Greenland Humpback as " entirely 

 dark in color, when dry black-brown or black, the bristles brownish " (37, 147). 

 In another place he remarks : " I have received more or less complete sets of whale- 

 bone of many young and old Keporlcaks, part in brine, part dried. They were all 

 dark colored, when dried almost black, when preserved moist in salt, the small internal 

 plates (Nebenbai'ten) more or less gray in part, the bristles almost always brown. 

 On each side are about 400 plates. The length of the whalebone scarcely exceeds 

 2 feet " (37, 93). 



The size of the whalebone in different European and American specimens is 

 shown in the following table : 



BALJENOPTERA ACUTO-ROSTRATA LAC. EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN. WHALEBONE. 



Nearly 2 feet long." 



