THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 279 



The agreement in two of the measurements is close, but the distance from the 

 flukes to the vent is larger in Scammon's specimen. This may be a real difference, 

 or may be due to measuring around the curve of the lower border of the caudal 

 peduncle. 



In connection with the text are given an outline figure of the northern Finback 

 and a shaded figure of the southern form. The latter, with those of other species 

 in the same work, are among the most beautiful delineations of whales that have 

 ever been published, and there is no doubt of their general accuracy, though they 

 would admit of some correction in details. 



In the outline figure above mentioned, the dorsal fin is still represented as 

 having a height of nearly 8 % of the total length, which must be regarded as an 

 exaggeration. In the shaded figure of the southern Finback, the height of the dorsal 

 fin is reduced to about 3 %, which is probably closer to the truth. On account of 

 the discrepancies in these sketches and drawings, though produced by so competent 

 an observer as Scammon, they can hardly be used in critical comparisons of species. 

 Indeed, they can only serve to give us an approximate idea of the type of Finback 

 Scammon had under observation. This is all the sketches profess to do. 



Putting together the information to be derived from the descriptions and 

 figures of 1869 and 1874, we determine that the species of Finback which Cope 

 called B. velifera, is 60 to 65 feet long, black or blackish-brown on the back and 

 sides, white on the belly and under side of the flippers; the dorsal fin falcate, 

 moderately large, and situated at a point more than two thirds the distance from 

 the end of the snout to the notch of the flukes ; the whalebone short (longest 2 

 ft. 4 in.), light lead color, streaked with black, with bristles 2 to 4 inches long and 

 thick as a "cambric needle " ; flippers about 15.5 % of the total length, flukes about 

 23.3 % to 23.8 %. 



If all these characters were to be considered as reliable, we might conclude that 

 B. velifera represented a species intermediate between B. physalus and B. musculus 

 of the North Atlantic. The moderate size, the white belly, the streaked whalebone, 

 and anterior portion of the dorsal fin correspond with B. physalus ; the large 

 pectorals and broad flukes ally it to B. musculus. As, however, the sketches show 

 discrepancies, the descriptions and measurements are meagre and more or less indefi- 

 nite, nothing whatever is recorded regarding the skeleton, and there is no type- 

 specimen, it is necessary to hold that the species was not completely characterized 

 by Scammon and Cope, and that its real characters and affinities still remain to be 

 elucidated. We may properly consider that what Scammon had in mind under the 

 name of " the Finback," was the common moderate-sized Finback of the Pacific coast 

 of the United States, and, if there are more than one, that which corresponds most 

 closely to the B. physalus of the North Atlantic. 



No material which passed through Scammon's hands, and which may be con- 

 sidered to represent B. velifera, is in the National Museum, except two pieces 

 of whalebone, Nos. 13981 and 13982 U. S. N. M. These, according to the record, 

 were obtained by Capt. Scammon near Tres Marias Ids., Mexico, in 1873. They 

 are entered as "baleen of humpback whale." This is rather unfortunate as it 



