8 



Transactions. — Zoology. 



six, or 57'8 per cent., are also megacephalic ; fifteen, or 33'3 

 per cent., are niesocephalic ; while only four, or 89 per cent., 

 are microcephalic. 



Cephalic Index. 



This table shows that the Ngaitahu come very low down 

 in the mesaticephalic group, the male skulls being slightly 

 longer than the female. The combined result for both 

 Islands, however, shows this latter character reversed. The 

 range of variation is 15-9, and between the two extremes the 

 forty skulls from the South Island are arranged as follows : 

 Three, or 7'5 per cent., are brachycephalic ; twenty-two, or 

 54 per cent., are mesaticephalic; fifteen, or 37'5 per cent., 

 are dolichocephalic. Even in much smaller groups the varia- 

 tion is considerable. For example, if we take the eight 

 skulls collected in -the small area in the neighbourhood of 

 the Otago Heads, we find the cephalic index varying between 

 83 and 72-5. The average of the three North Island groups is 

 dolichocephalic, though one of them is just within the mesati- 

 cephalic division. In none of these three groups is there a 

 single brachycephalic skull. The most dolichocephalic group 

 is that from Auckland and the Bay of Islands. Professor 

 Flower's series of skulls from Whangarei, already referred to, 

 and the three described by Sir William Turner from Auckland, 

 likewise show a low cephalic index. The average of Professor 

 Flower's — omitting the child's skull — is 73-5, and had he used 

 the glabello-occipital length it would have been lower. 

 Professor Turner's give an average of 72-7. "We have there- 

 fore the measurements of thirty-four skulls from the northern 

 end of New Zealand, not one of which is brachycephalic, and 

 whose average index (even taking Professor Flower's at 73-5) 

 is 73-4. 



The average for the whole of New Zealand, according to 

 my tables, shows the typical IMaori skull to be at the lower 

 limit of the mesaticephalic group : 4 per cent, are brachy- 

 cephalic, 52-6 per cent, are mesaticephalic, 43-4 per cent, are 

 dolichocephalic. Three have indices under 70. The seventy- 



