304 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXIV, 



in the ''Southern Right Whale," is chiefly of interest as a histologies! con- 

 tribution, based on a specimen of uncertain origin, by perhaps a good histol- 

 ogist, but one strangely ignorant of the well-known function of this structure, 

 as the nidus of parasitic crustaceans, by which its growth is promoted, if 

 not originally caused, instead of being due to the failure of the cornified 

 layers of the skin "to rub off at their normal rate, but remain and accumu- 

 late to produce a hard mass, projecting above the general surface of the 

 epidermis as a kind of corn" (!). 



True, 1904- A. most important recent contribution to the historv of the 

 North Atlantic Right Whale is contained in True's 'Whalebone Whales of 

 the Western North Atlantic/ * The references, however, to its general . 

 history are somewhat scattered, occurring passim under the following 

 captions: 'Chapter I. The earliest references to Whalebone Whales in 

 American Waters' (pp. 6-33). 'Chapter II, A chronological account of 

 important contributions to the natural history of North American Whalebone 

 W 7 hales' (p'p. 34-77). In these chapters the North Atlantic Right Whale 

 is mentioned informally, or incidentally, in connection with other species 

 of Whalebone W T hales, in copious extracts from original sources, for the 

 most part in chronological sequence. In ' Chapter III. A review of Cope's 

 and Scammom's Species' (pp. 78-106), an account is given (pp. 79, 80) 

 of Cope's Balcena cisarctica, based on the type specimen in the museum of 

 the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. Chapter VIII (pp. 244- 

 268) is devoted entirely to 'The North Atlantic Right Whale, Balcena 

 glacialis Bonnaterre.' In Chapter X, a concise description of Balcena 

 glacialis occupies fifteen lines on p. 298. Five plates (42 to 46, inclusive), 

 from photographs, are devoted to illustrations of this species, and include 

 the skull of a Long Island specimen (dorsal, lateral, and ventral views, pll. 

 42 and 43); two views of the skull of the Charleston specimen (pll. 43 and 

 45); a side view of the type skeleton of Balcena cisarctica Cope (pi. 44); 

 the left scapula of four different skeletons (pi. 45); head and side view of a 

 specimen in the flesh, taken at Provincetown, Mass., and two sternums 

 (pi. 46). The text figures illustrate the nasal bones of the type of B. cis- 

 arctica (fig. 84, p. 252); the sternums of the Taranto, of an Iceland, and of 

 a Long Island specimen, 2 showing wide differences of form (fig. 85-87, p. 

 258); six scapulse, representing five American specimens and the Taranto 

 specimen (figs. 88-93, p. 259). 



1 The Whalebone Whales of the Western North Atlantic, compared with those occurring in 

 European Waters, with some observations on the species of the North Pacific. By Frederick W. 

 True, Head Curator, Department of Biology, United States National Museum. Smithsonian 

 Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. XXXIII, 1904. 4to, pp. vii + 332, pll. i-1, and 97 text 



2 The sternum of the Long Island specimen is a restoration, wrongly modeled from the 

 sternum of a Rorqual. 



