18 Transactions.— Zoology. 



anteriorly in three cases only, while posterior fusion — the 

 anterior end being free — is seen in twelve. In one the ossifica- 

 tion has apparently begun about the centre. 



In two skulls the sagittal suture has disappeared prema- 

 turely, not a trace remaining. One (No. 22, Table I.) is that 

 of an adult ; the other (No. 43, Table I.) is a child's skull, five 

 or six years of age. They are both, in consequence, much more 

 elongated than others of the same ages. The cephalic index 

 of this adult skull is 69-6. 



Mctopism. — One skull is fully metopic. It was found in 

 the Nelson Province, and is described with the North Island 

 skulls. It is No. 11 of the group from the south-west coast, 

 in Table II. In four other skulls a short fissure is to be seen 

 in the glabella, and in a fifth a small triangular ossification is 

 to be seen extending upwards into the glabella from imme- 

 diately above the nasal bones. 



Inter-parietal Bone. — No example of this irregularity was 

 met with among the Maori crania, but in one case a small 

 fissure 13mm. in length passed on one side into the oc- 

 cipital bone from its lateral angle. 



Pterion. — The pterion is in almost all the cases in which 

 it could be observed of the H-shaped type. The length 

 of the parieto-sphenoid articulation varies from 8mm. to 

 20mm., the average being 9- 5mm. In one specisaen it seemed 

 as if a K-shaped pterion had been present, but this could not 

 be determined with certainty, because of extensive obliteration 

 of the sutures. In one only is there an articulation between 

 the squamosal and the frontal, and this, as in the Moriori to be 

 afterwards noted, takes place by means of an oblong bony 

 process which projects forwards from the squamosal as if an 

 epipteric bone had fused with it. In a separate Maori tem- 

 poral bone in my possession this same condition is present. 



Epipteric hones are of fairly frequent occurrence. They 

 occur in five skulls on both sides, and in ten more on one. 



Wormian hones occur in thirty-seven skulls. In addition to 

 the region of the pterion, they are found in the lambdoidal 

 suture, where they occur most frequently, in the occipito- 

 mastoid and parieto-squamous sutures, and at the asterion. 

 In one skull there occurs in each orbit a small separate ossifi- 

 cation in the angle between the frontal, the malar, and the 

 great wing of the sphenoid, and it is this skull which has the 

 separate ossification at the root of the nose in the glabella 

 already alluded to. 



Incomplete union hcttvecn the squamosal and petro-mastoid 

 elements of the temporal hone was seen in two skulls, occurring 

 on both sides in each. In these a fissure, such as has been 

 described in European skulls, is seen running obliquely from 

 the angle between the squamous and mastoid above, down- 



