232 



THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



OSTEOLOGY. 



Several skeletons of Humpbacks from the east coast of North America are 

 preserved in the museums of the United States. I have examined the type of 

 Megaptera osphyia Cope, taken off the Maine coast, the type of M. bellicosa from 

 the West Indies, and two skeletons in the National Museum from Cape Cod, Mass., 

 viz. : No. 16252, young female, and No. 21492. For the Greenland Humpback, 

 we have Eschricht's description and figures (36 to 39). For the European Hump- 

 back, the best descriptions are Rudolphi's account of the type of M. longimana 

 (76), and Struthers's elaborate study of the Tay River, Scotland, whale (57). 

 Flower's well-known paper on the skeletons in the museums of Holland and Bel- 

 gium contains valuable information (45) ; also Van Beneden and Gervais's Oste- 

 ographie (8), Fischer's Cetaces du Sud Quest de la France (44), and other works 

 of European naturalists. (See pis. 29 to 36.) 



NUMBER OF VERTEBRAE. 



The various skeletons of Humpbacks from the North Atlantic, both European 

 and American, thus far examined present the following vertebral formulae: 



MEQAPTERA NODOSA (BONNATERRE). EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN. VERTEBRAL FORMULA. 



The agreement in number of dorsal vertebrae is complete, of lumbars prac- 

 tically so, and of caudals so nearly that the differences may be regarded as indi- 

 vidual, or due to imperfection in the specimens. The normal formula would 

 appear to be : 



C. 7, D. 14, L. 11, Ca. 21 = 53. 



The following, however, is quite likely to occur as frequently, if a larger num- 

 ber of specimens should be examined : 



C. 7, D. 14, L.10, Ca. 21 = 52. 



1 Flower (41) gives 31. 



'Van Beneden (<?, 126) also gives 53 as the total number of vertebrae in this specimen. My 

 own notes on the skeleton, made in 1884, give 52 as the total, and this number is shown in the 

 atlas of the Oste'ographie (pis. 10 and n, fig. i), viz., C. 7, D. 14, L. 10, Ca. 21 = 52. It is No. 

 269 in the Brussels Museum. 



