> 
Core.) 108 [Oct. 21, 1870. 
until the end of May. In April and May it is said that they are seen in 
pairs, standing vertically in the water. When they return, they often 
come in a family of three, male, female and young, the calf of one or two 
years old. The bull is wild, and more difficult to take than the female, 
and he has, on two occasions, smashed the boat of his pursuers to pieces. 
In June they are said to go farther in the Mexican Gulf, and return east- 
ward in the autumn, but they do not appear among the smaller Antilles 
at that time.* Dr. Goés supposes that they pass the straits of Florida, or 
follow the shores of the South Main. He says that the whalers think they 
pass the middle of winter on the African coast, but this will require 
confirmation, 
Additional note on BALAENOPTERA vel SIBBALDIUS SULFUREUS, Cope. 
This species was first brought to the notice of zoologists by Captain C. 
M. Scammon, in an extended paper on the Cetacea of the Pacific Coast 
of North America.* From the data furnished by him, the writer was 
enabled to determine it as distinct from any of the species hitherto known, 
under the above name, with the following characters :+ 
Dorsal fin small, conic, situated on the posterior fourth of the back. 
Form slender ; length seventy to ninety feet. Color, above, grey or 
brown ; below, sulphur yellow. 
Capt. Scammon having sent to the museum of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution four laminee of whalebone, Iam enabled to add important points 
to the above diagnosis, as follows 
3aleen black everywhere. Bristles intermediate in size, between those 
of Sibbaldius tectirostris, Cope, (finer) and Megaptera osphyia (coarser), 
in six or eight rows, and seven or eight inches in length. Length of 
plate, without bristles, two ft. eight inches; width of base eighteen 
inches. Lamine with weak transverse rugosities. 
The above characters show conclusively that this whale is different 
from the B. antarctica, Gray, which is also called sulphur-bottom by the 
whalers in the South Pacific. The whalebone of the latter is yellowish 
white. 
’ EXPLANATION OF CUTS. 
21—Cranium of Megaptera bellicosa from above. 
22—Nasal bones from above. 
28—Posterior portion of ramus mandibuli, from outside. 
g. 24—Same as 23 from above. 
25—Basihyal bone from above. 
Fig. 26—Atlas from front. 
Figs. 27 and 27—Portions of articular faces and processes of atlas and 
third cervical vertebre. 
*Proceed. Acad, Nat. Sci., Phila., 1869, p. 51. 
+ Loc. cit., p. 20. 
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