THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



261 



In none of the American specimens do the phalanges appear to be in their 

 natural positions, and in several of the skeletons a considerable number are lost. 

 It is impracticable, therefore, to give a reliable formula, but the following are 

 taken from mounted specimens in the American museums : 



BALJENA GLACIALIS BONNATEBBE. AMEBICAN. PHALANGES. 



SUMMARY. 



The foregoing discussion of European and American specimens of the Nord- 

 caper, or Black whale, leads to the following general statements and conclusions : 



1. Specimens from the two sides of the Atlantic are alike in size. 



2. The external proportions, so far as can be ascertained from the scant data 

 available, show very considerable variability, but the variations are indefinite and 

 give no ground for separating the American from the European specimens. It is 

 probable that much of the apparent variability is due to inaccurate measurements. 



3. The whalebone in the largest American specimen is of the same length 

 as the largest Iceland whalebone. 



4. The majority of both European and American specimens are uniform 

 black throughout. 



o. The number of ribs and vertebrae is the same in specimens from both sides 

 of the Atlantic. The vertebral formula is the same, except that American speci- 

 mens appear to have normally 1 1 lumbars, while European specimens, according to 

 Guldberg and Gasco, have 12 lumbars normally. The reasons why this difference 

 cannot be regarded as having the importance it would at first appear to have 

 are given on page 251. 



6. The points in the vertebral column at which the processes of the vertebrae 

 become obsolete are the same in both American and European specimens, but the 

 data in relation to the latter are meagre. 



7. Photographs of the skull of the Long Id., New York, skeleton in the 

 National Museum agree very closely indeed with Gasco's figures of the skull of 

 the Taranto (Italy) skeleton, in which the outlines are also from photographs. On 



1 There is no probability that this formula is correct. 



