BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 177 



Vol. IV, ]¥o. 13. Wa§hmgtOBi, D. C. July 31, 1884. 



90 ON THE SPECIMENS KEC'EIVED BV THE SMITaiSONBAN INSTI- 

 TUTION FKOM THE UNITED STATES I.IFE-SAVIN« SERVICE. 



By Prof. S. F. BAIRD. 



The arrangemeut made by the Superintendent of the Life- Saving 

 Service, early in the year, for the telegraphic announcement to the 

 Smithsonian Institution of the stranding of marine animals lias al- 

 ready been productive of important results. The series of specimens 

 thus far received is in every way remarkable, and should the system 

 continue to be so productive it is imi^ossible to say what good may not 

 result to zoology. The first specimen received was that of a shark [Pseu- 

 dotriacis microdon) fi'om Station ]S'o. 10, Amagansett, iS". Y., Mr. Joshua 

 B. Edwards, keeper. This species had hitherto been captured only off 

 the coast of Portugal, and its discovery in our waters was a matter of 

 great interest to American ichthyologists. The only specimen known 

 to be preserved besides this one is the type of the species. 



Shortly after this shark was received, a still more remarkable animal 

 was announced from Station No. 8, at Spring Lake, N. J., Mr. Henry 

 S. Howland, keeper. This was a pigmy sperm whale, which was en- 

 tirely new to the North Atlantic, and apparently new to science as 

 well. It has been provisionally named Kogia goodei. Few specimens 

 of this genus have ever been coUectetl, and these from the most remote 

 j)art8 of the globe, some from New Zealand, and one from Mazatlan at 

 the entrance of the Gulf of California. These animals resemble the 

 great sperm whale, to which they are closely related, but do not seem 

 to attain a length of more than 9 or 10 feet, and are truly the pig- 

 mies of their race. The New Jersey specimen was peculiarly inter- 

 esting in that it was a female with young. In dissecting the animal a 

 a fetus fully 3 feet long was found, which is probably the first ever 

 seen. 



The enthusiasm aroused by the arrival of this specimen had scarcely 

 abated when the stranding of another cetacean was announced from 

 Station No. 17, at Barnegat City, N. J., Mr. J. H. Ridgway, keeper. 

 This remarkable animal floated in upon the tide and was secured by 

 Mr. Eidgway and his crew after considerable exertion. The curator of 

 mammals and an assistant were dispatched from the National Museum 

 and a cast of the exterior was made and the skeleton prepared for ship 

 ment to Washington. As the huge animal lay upon the sand the ques- 

 tion of its identity proved quite a puzzling one to the zoologist who 

 viewed it; but when the skull was cut out, it was at once apparent that 

 the animal belonged to the whales known as the Ziphioids, and proba- 

 Bull. U. S. F. C, 84 — -12 



