1908.] Mini, The North Atlantic Right Whale. 305 



The text contains an exhaustive summary of all the published aeeounts 

 of the external and osteological characters of all the then known specimens, 

 both European and American, and much original matter relating to several 

 American examples not previously described. Under the headings, 'size/ 

 "external proportions/ 'color/ and 'osteological characters/ detailed com- 

 parisons are made between European and American specimens, with numer- 

 ous tables of comparative measurements of the total length in the flesh, of 

 the skeleton, skull, and various individual bones. His conclusions are 

 summarized in ten propositions, with the final statement: "While there are 

 many points regarding the Nordcaper that need to be further investigated, 

 there is at present, so far as can be ascertained from the material available, 

 no valid reason for separating the American from the European specimens as 

 distinct species" (p. 262). He then devotes several pages (pp. 262-267) to 

 a consideration of the "opinions regarding the identity of the Right Whales 

 of the Eastern and Western Atlantic" advanced by cetologists, or the rela- 

 tionship of Balcena biscayensis to B. cisarctica, from Zorgdrager and Martens 

 down to Van Beneden, Holder, Guldberg, and other late writers. He fails, 

 however, to notice the attitude of Flower on the question of the relation of the 

 North Atlantic Right Whale to the Right Whales of the North Pacific and the 

 southern hemisphere, although his opinion has dominated later British au- 

 thors who have written of these whales. In his Chapter XI, 'Whalebone 

 Whales of the Eastern North Pacific Ocean/ True treats briefly of the Right 

 Whales of the Northwest Coast, under the name "Balcena sieboldii Gray 

 (?)," basing his notice, in lack of additional material, on Scammon's ac- 

 count of it, and closes by quoting, without comment, Van Beneden's strongly 

 expressed conviction that the Right Whale of the North Pacific is a distinct 

 species from that of the North Atlantic. 



Andrews, 1908. Only one other contribution to the history of the North 

 Atlantic Right Whale will be mentioned in the present connection, a 

 notice by Roy C. Andrews of two specimens 1 captured on the coast of 

 Long Island, New York, February 22, 1907, and secured for this Museum, 

 through the liberality of Mr. Geo. S. Bowdoin of this city. As the prepara- 

 tion of these specimens for shipment to the Museum was made under the 

 superintendence of Mr. Andrews, he fortunately had opportunity to take 

 notes and measurements of the animals while in the flesh, and later to study 

 the skeletons of both animals at the Museum. His paper, as the title indi- 

 cates, relates to the external and internal anatomy of these specimens, which 

 were both females, one of them an old and very large individual, the other 

 about two thirds grown. In addition to detailed measurements of the exter- 



1 Notes on the External and Internal Anatomy of Balcena glacialis Bonn. Bull. Amer. 

 Mus. Nat, Hist., Vol. XXIV, 1908, pp. 171-182, figs. i-6. 



{April. 1908.] 20 



