22 



Transactions. — Zoology . 



carefully examined — viz., von Haast's New Brighton specimen, 

 and the two which have come under my notice : — 



It will be seen that the only differences of importance between 

 the three specimens are those connected with (a) the size of the 

 head, which is shortest in the New Brighton, longest in the 

 Otago Harbour specimen ; and (b) the number of fin-rays, which 

 are most numerous in the New Brighton, fewest in the Otago 

 Harbour specimen. 



Similar differences exist between the examples found in the 

 Northern Hemisphere. In eight of these, tabulated by Liitken 

 (5, p. 26), the proportion between the greatest height of the 

 body and the total length varies from 1 : 9 to 1 : 15 ; the propor- 

 tion between the length of the head and the total length, from 

 1 : 14 to 1 : 21 ; the proportion between the pre-anal region and 

 the totallength, from 1 : 1-7 to 1 : 3-2 ; and the number of dorsal 

 fin-rays from 174 to 4()(i. 



(b.) Evidence of mutilation of tail. — The tail (PI. V., fig. 4) 

 had evidently been broken off obliquely, probably at no very 

 distant period, since the broken surface of the last vertebra was 

 visible externally. 



The fracture had taken place across the middle of the 89th 

 vertebra, the remaining or anterior half of which agreed in 

 every respect with the corresponding portion of the preceding 

 vertebra', and was quite different from the peculiar demi-vertebra 

 which terminated the vertebral column of the Moeraki specimen 

 (8, PI. VI., figs. 25 and 26). It is, of course, possible that in 

 the process of healing the broken bone might assume the form 



