26 STUDIES Ol'- TASMAMAN CKTACEA, 



in fact, contradict it I Von Haast says: — "The i^re-fron- 

 '■ tals (of Owen) begin 6.50 inches from the anterior point of 

 " the rostrum." Thi.s is the vomer, and was never called 

 anything else by Prof. Owen. Owen's use of the words 

 ■pre-fronfnJs, as applied to whales, can only be understood 

 by recalling the fact that he restricted the word etlnimid 

 to the nasal sense capsules, and the term pre-frontals to the 

 whole of the ethmoidal elements tliat remained. Now 

 let us look for Owen's j)re-fr<)nfah in the toothed whale. 

 In his description of Oira brerirosfris (cited by Gray) '^'^^ 

 Owen says : — " The roitier extends to within I'h inch of the 

 '" end of the pre-maxillaries. and behind these intervenes 

 " upon the bonv palate between the maxillaries, along a 

 '■ strip of 2 inches and three lines across the broadest part. 

 '■ This palatal part of the vcaiior is the lower convexity of 

 "the canal formed by the spout-shaped bone; the hollow 

 " of the canal is exposed at the upper interspace of the 

 ■ pre-maxillaries. Here also is seen 2 inches Jicliind the 

 " fore end of the vomer the rough, thick anterior border 

 " of the coalesced iire-froniah, which contracts as it passes 

 '■ into their upper border, forming the septum of the nos- 

 " trils, expanding below and behind to form the back 

 " wall of the nasal jDassages. " 



It will be obviousi that Owen here uses the terms 

 vomer and pre-frontaJa for the bones named by Flower, 

 vomer and ethmoid, and also that while the vomer extends 

 forward almost to the tip of the beak, the eihmoid or pre- 

 frontrils are enclosed by the vomer, which latter is drawn 

 backwards at the base of the skull to cover the spheno- 

 sphenoidal sutui'e. As touching the nasal cavity, the nasal 

 moieties of the vomT extend nearly half-way to the ver- 

 tex, and here coalesce with the cflinioid or pre-fronrnls, 

 whichever we care to call them. 



True, in his exhaustive monograph on the Ziphiidcc, 

 missing this point, says (Bulletin 73, U.S. Nat. Mus., pp. 

 50 and 51): — "The proximal end of the roiiirr is anky- 

 " losed with the anterior face of the nasals, and reaches up 

 " to the nasal bosses, etc." This should have been the 

 jjroximal ends of the pre-frontals, ankylose with the an- 

 terior face of the nasals. 



As a second proof that Owen never co^ifounded the 

 vomer with the pre-frontals, he says at p. 425, of his 

 Anatomy of the Vertebrates, A^ol. 2 : — " The in'e-frontals 

 in tho lielur/a are large, and ascend into view at the back 

 part of the nostrils, where they coalesce with the f rentals." 

 This is the common condition in the order Del pit mid iv, 



t8;ii Gruy, Biit. Mus., Cat Seals and Whales, p. 285. 



