Victorian Fossils, Fart XXT. 39 



" have a close g'eneric resemblance. Mesoplodon bidens, 

 Sowerby sp., is conunon to the North Sea and North 

 Atlantic; M.€i(ro2Mteus, Gervais, sp., was found in the 

 English Channel; M.de/isirosfris, Blainville sp., occurred off the 

 Seychelles Islands, South Africa, and Lord Howe Island; M.layardi, 

 Gray sp., was found off the Cape of Good Hope, near Sydney, New 

 Zealand and the Chatliam Islands; M.hectovi, Gray sjj., found in 

 Titai Bay, New Zealand; M.grayi, Haast sp., from Bank's Penin- 

 ,sula. New Zealand; M.haasfi, Flower, North Island, New Zealand; 

 and M.ausfralis, Flower, from Lyall Bay, New Zealand. 



In certain structural characters of the cranial rostrum, the rela- 

 tionships of the fossil, M.coifipressiis, judging from the Australian 

 i^'pecimens, lie nearest to M.grai/i, Haast sp., from New Zealand, i 

 chiefly by the indications of a row of small teeth in the upper jaw, 

 as well as by the deep lateral basirostral groove, and the posterior 

 position of the premaxillary foramen in relation to the maxillary. 

 In the sectional sketches of rostra of living species of MesojjJodofi by 

 Flower, 2 that of MesopJodon haasti is almost identical both with those 

 given by Huxley and Owen respectively, as well as some taken from 

 the above described Victorian specimens. In regard to the supposed 

 identity of M.rjrai/i and M. haasti, by Von Haast, who included them 

 under the one species name of M. grayi, Flower remarks^ : " Making 

 every allowance for individual variation, it scarcely seems possible 

 that a rostrum such as that shown in Fig. 2, could change in the 

 course of growth to that of Fig. 3. If so, most of the detei-minations 

 of the fossil species based solely upon the form of the rostrum are 

 quite valueless." 



Occurrence. — The discovery of two Australian fossil specimens of 

 a ziphoid whale identifial)]e with a si:)ecies occurring in the Crag 

 deposits of England is especially interesting to stratigraphists, since 

 it further confirms the identification of the Victorian Kalimnan beds 

 with the Pliocene of England and Belgium. Specimen A of the fore- 

 going descriptions was received by exchange from Mr. R. Hughan, 

 whilst Specimen B is a cast taken from a fossil in Mr. Dillwell's 

 collection. They are both from the Kalimnan (Lower Pliocene) of 

 Grange Burn, near Hamilton. 



See synopsis of characters of Meaoplodon 1)y Flower, Trans. Zool. Sop., vol. x., 1878, p. 418. 



Op. cit., p. 42?, fiifures. 



Flower, op. cit., vol. x., IST-*, p. 422. 



