122 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XIX, 



more than one in five of those killed were secured, as many 

 mortally wounded went off under the ice, and all those not 

 instantly killed immediately sank. A bullet placed just back 

 of the base of the skull, dislocating or breaking the spinal 

 column, gave the best results, and nearly all killed in that 

 way floated. Nearly every one of those still alive had at least 

 one bullet-hole in it and I saw one that had eight. 



"At the time I visited them the greater part were the dark 

 colored or younger individuals, although those first on the 

 scene said that the dark and light colored ones were about 

 equally represented. Every one in shooting would pick a 

 large white one as long as they lasted. The colors represented 

 all the shades of slate and hair brown, gradually fading into 

 pure white. The majority of the adult females were preg- 

 nant, the foetuses measuring from 1450 to 1700 mm. in length. 

 The foetuses were uniform dark slate color with lighter rings 

 around the eyes. Three calves, about eight feet in length, 

 following their mothers, were darker than the foetal ones and 

 mottled with chocolate brown. These had not yet cut their 

 teeth. From this size up the color gradually became lighter, 

 some being light slate, others smoke gray and hair brown, 

 until on those from n feet 9 inches to 12 feet the color en- 

 tirely disappeared, leaving them milk or ivory white, except a 

 dark purplish brown stripe about an inch wide on the pos- 

 terior edge of the fluke, on the dorsal and ventral edge of the 

 'small' or just anterior to the fluke, on the free edge of flip- 

 pers, and a sooty ring around the eyes. In still older ones 

 the sooty ring around the eyes was wanting, and the dark 

 markings on fluke, small, and flippers was more subdued. 

 Some of the large white ones had a distinct chlorine green 

 tinge. The foetuses are lighter than the calves and darker 

 than the medium-sized ones; after birth they assume a 

 darker color and become mottled with chocolate; then they 

 soon begin to fade until the color has entirely disappeared, 

 except as previously stated, leaving them pure glossy ivory 

 or milk-white. When the larger dark colored individuals are 

 examined closely they present a uniform hair, brown color 

 punctated with small darker ovoid spots. A transverse sec- 



