THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 287 



Pechuel (73, p. 1188, fig. A. 6) has a figure to which he gives the name Sib- 

 baldius sulfureus, but it does not appear to have been based on the examination of 

 specimens. He remarks : 



" I saw it singly or in pairs in the Pacific Ocean near the coast from Chili to 

 California, but it is found also in the North Atlantic Ocean. The whalers are 

 accustomed to hunt it under favorable conditions, but only a few proportionately 

 are killed. We often gave chase to it but without any result, as the animals were 

 too quick and too active." 



RHACHIANECTES GLAUCUS Cope. 



The California Gray whale, Grayback, or Devilfish, though known to whalers 

 for a considerable time, was first introduced to science by Cope in 1868, under the 

 name of Agaphelus glaucus, on the basis of a set of whalebone in the museum of the 

 Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. (See p. 80.) Later in the same year he described 

 the exterior of the animal and the skull and other parts of the skeleton from notes 

 furnished by Mr. W. H. Ball. The genus Rhachianectes was established in 1869, 

 with the following exceedingly brief diagnosis : 



Ehachianectes Cope. 



"This genus is now first characterized. Its only known species I originally 

 united with Agaphelus Cope, but the form of the scapula is so different that it must 

 be distinguished. While that of Agaphelus is identical with that of Balcenoptera, it 

 is in the present genus like that of JSalcena" (83, 15). 



Cope's second article, published in 1868 (26, 226), contains Mr. W. H. Dall's 

 notes on two specimens observed at Monterey, California. The following external 

 characters are given : 



No. 2. " The lower jaw is 4 inches longer than the upper ; the blow-holes 

 are entirely concealed by 4 dermal plicae. . . . On the vertebral line, for 14 feet from 

 the caudal flukes, is a series of 18 ridges, like the teeth of a saw, which are altogether 

 dermal in their character. . . . On each side of sulcus penis a mammary sulcus a 

 few inches shorter. Color above and below, black, with a gray bloom like a plum." 



Cope remarks : 



" Two rough outlines accompany Capt. Dall's notes. Both represent the pec- 

 toral fin as rather elongate, not pointed, but rather broad at the extremity. A third 

 sketch represents the inferior view, and in it we see two lines for grooves, one on 

 each side of the median gular line. This feature, if existing, is interesting, as 

 indicating a tendency to the plicae of the finback whales." 



