1914.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 437 



NOTICE OF A RARE ZIPHIOID WHALE, MESOPLODON DENSIROSTRIS, ON THE 



NEW JERSEY COAST. 



BY ROY CHAPMAN ANDREWS. 



The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia has been for- 

 tunate in securing the skeleton of a rare Beaked whale, Alesoplodon 

 densirostris (Blainville), taken at Corson's Inlet, N. J., June 18, 

 1913, by Henry W. Fowler and Wm. J. Fox. This specimen 

 makes possible the first positive identification of this animal 

 on the American coast and, since it has hitherto been known only 

 from the seas about Australia and the Indian Ocean, gives important 

 evidence as to the extensive range of the species. 



In 1906, Dr. Glover M. Allen,^ reported upon a young female 

 Beaked whale found dead on the coast at Annisquam, Mass., in 

 August, 1898, the skeleton of which was secured for the Boston 

 Society of Natural History by Prof. Alpheus Hyatt. Dr. Allen 

 referred this specimen to Mesoplodon bidens (Sowerby) and gave a 

 description of the skeleton and external anatomy so far as the latter 

 was known. Some years later Dr. F. W. True- restudied the speci- 

 men, the skull of which is somewhat injured, and decided that it 

 probably represented Mesoplodon densirostris (Blainville). In con- 

 cluding his discussion of this specimen, Dr. True remarks: 

 "Although with such scant material it is not possible to determine 

 satisfactorily the identity of this third species of Mesoplodon in the 

 North Atlantic, represented by the Annisquam specimen, I feel 

 convinced that that specimen does not belong to M. bidens and that 

 there is a strong probability that it belongs to M. densirostris. It is 

 true that the latter species has been found hitherto only in the 

 Indian Ocean and about Australia, but we know so little about the 

 distribution of the ziphioid whales that, in my opinion, that circum- 

 stance by itself should not be given very great weight." (I.e., 



p. 11). 



A comparison of the New Jersey whale with the beautiful figures 

 of the skull of M. densirostris given by Van Beneden and Gervais 



1 Am. Naturalist, Vol. 40, 1906, pp. 357-367. 



- An Account of the Beaked Whales of the Family Ziphiidse in the Collection 

 of the United States National Museum. U. S. Nat. Mus., Bull. 73, 1910, pp. 9-11. 



