Scott. — Osteology of the Maori and Morion. 63 



between the crania of the Ngaitahu Tribe of the South Island 

 and those from the northern part of the Auckland Province, 

 mainly from the Bay of Islands and Whangarei. The Nga- 

 puhi are now the most important tribe in this region, but 

 I cannot say whether the skulls included in this group belong 

 to this or, indeed, to any one tribe. The district, however, is 

 clearly defined, and the skulls available closely approximate in 

 number to the Ngaitahu examined by me. By availing 

 myself of the twenty-two crania already described by Pro- 

 fessors Flower and Turner, I get, with those whose measure- 

 ments are now given, a set of thn'ty-four skulls to compare 

 with the forty of the southern tribe. The other two groups 

 from the North Island given in the paper are too small to be 

 of any value in estimating tribal characteristics, and I institute 

 in this paper no comparison between them and the two larger 

 collections. In the Auckland skulls the average cephalic 

 index is 73-3, the vertical 72-8, the frontal 68-2, the orbital 

 89-3, the nasal 50-2, the gnathic 984, the palato-maxillary 

 119-9; while the same indices in the Ngaitahu are 75'9, 74-6, 

 67-9, 86-4, 48-0, 97-6, and 120-8 ; showing that the skulls of 

 the former group are, proportionally to their length, longer 

 than those of the latter, that they have wider nasal openings, 

 and slightly more projecting jaws. And it has also been 

 shown that the proportion of height to breadth is slightly 

 greater in them than in the Ngaitahu. The Melanesian cha- 

 racters are therefore more accentuated in the North than 

 amongst the Natives of the South Island. The prevalence of 

 the Papuan form among skulls from the Bay of Islands has 

 also been observed by MM. de Quatrefages and Hamy, and is 

 noted by them in the "Crania Ethnica "'■= when describing 

 the Maori cranium. 



The measurements now given of the Moriori skull, taken 

 with those already published, show it to be mesaticephalic, 

 though close to the lower limit of the group ; metriocephalic, 

 though almost tapeinocephalic ; low down in the megaseme 

 group ; leptorhine ; orthognathous ; brachyuranic ; phaenozy- 

 gous : and the males to be megacephalic. 



It differs from the Maori skull mainly in its lesser height, 

 both absolute and relative to length and breadth ; the greater 

 excess of the parietal over the frontal width ; the higher 

 orbits ; and the narrower nasal opening. The depressed and 

 retreating forehead is also a very marked feature of many 

 Moriori skulls. It is slightly broader relatively to its length, 

 and somewhat more pi-ognathous. The cranial capacity is 

 also slightly less. But, as already pointed out, there is often 

 a very close resemblance between Maori and Moriori skulls. 



* P. 460. 



