16 Transactions. — Zoology. 



basi-nasal, they take the opistho-nasal length, and, regarding 

 this as 1, they give its proportion to the length of the upper 

 arch between the opisthion and nasion. The highest propor- 

 tion of arch to base — 2-91 — was found by Cleland in Irish 

 skulls ; the lowest — 2-4:7 — in Esquimaux. My series of Ma.ori 

 - skulls, looked at in the same way, shows that in the Ngaitahu 

 the proportion is 2-71 ; in those from the south-west coast, 

 2-69 ; in the east coast skulls, 2-72 ; and in the Auckland group, 

 2-74. 



Median Circwnference of Brain-case. — Of the three sub- 

 divisions of the nasio-opistlaic arc the frontal is the longest in 

 tw^enty, or 80 per cent., of the male Ngaitahu skulls. In one 

 the parietal equals it, and both are longer than the occipital 

 or lambdo-opisthic portion of the arc. In two the occipital 

 segment equals the frontal, the parietal being the shortest. 

 In two cases the parietal arc is the longest, the frontal coming 

 second. In no case is the occipital the longest. It, however, 

 exceeds the parietal in twelve skulls, while the parietal exceeds 

 it in eleven. The parietal portion of the arc is the shortest in 

 fourteen skulls; the occipital in ten. In nine of the fourteen 

 female skulls of the same tribe the frontal arc is the longest. 

 The parietal equals it twice, while in one skull the frontal, 

 parietal, and occipital divisions are all equal. Though the 

 parietal thus equals the frontal in three female skulls, in no 

 case does it exceed it ; but in two cases the occipital portion 

 of the arc is the longest, the frontal coming second. The 

 parietal is the shortest in five female skulls ; the occipital in 

 eight. Combining the sexes, we have the frontal arc longest 

 in 82 per cent, of the skulls, and the parietal and occipital in 

 5 per cent. The occipital arc is shortest in 46-2 percent., and 

 the parietal shortest in 48-7 per cent. 



The fourteen skulls from the south-west coast of the North 

 Island have the frontal arc longest in six, the parietal in five, 

 while these two bones are equal in three more. The occipital 

 is the shortest in every case. 



The group of ten skulls from the east coast of the North 

 Island has the frontal arc longest in five, the parietal m 

 four, and equal to the frontal in one. As in the last group, 

 in every skull the occipital portion of the arc is the shortest. 



Of the twelve skulls from Auckland and the district to the 

 north of it, one has the sutures so completely obliterated that 

 the limits of the bones could not be determined. The frontal 

 is the longest portion of the arc in eight, and equals the 

 parietal in the other three. The occipital is the shortest in 

 all except one, where it exceeds the parietal. 



All this shows clearly that the Melanesian characteristic, 

 a parietal bone longer than the frontal, does not obtain among. 

 Maori skulls. 



