BY H. H. SCOTT AND fUVK K. LOKD. 31 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The Zijiliiithr manifest a primitive character that has 

 apparently les? in common with the Pnizfinjlvdonttt, than 

 it has with the hypothetical generalised, ungulate progeni- 

 tor of Professor Flower. This is the presence of both a 

 malar plate (as well as the jugal style common to dclnhins) 

 and a lathrvnial bone, of extensive area. Nothing akin 

 to this is found in the ciirnivora. but the like is common 

 to existing ungulates, and in the genus BOS, the malar 

 plate oveilaps the lachrymal in a similar way to that ob- 

 taining in the cetacean skull. The lachrymal is always an 

 important face bone in ungulates, being, where necessary, 

 modified to meet the ne.?ds of the scent glands, but in the 

 hipi)opotamus, which Flower regarded as the nearest 

 living coiigener of the pro-ungulates, the lachrymal is a 

 fairly solid plate-like bone, well up to the middle line of 

 the face. 



Our illu.'-tration of the skull is sufficiently good to sup- 

 ply all the ordinary data for a comparative study of 

 Zi ji'iiiKs, with other whales, but it may be wise to add the 

 following notes: — 



1. The overhanging pre-fronto-nasal bcfses, of 



Zi/i/iiiis, cut it off from Bf-rtirdimt. 



2. The shoi'ter and stouter skull segregates it from 



M^>iijpl(jdini. 



3. The males, according to True, have — in addition to 



the ossified rostral cartilage — wide narial basins, 

 and teeth with I'oota 25 to 30 mm. across, as 

 against 10 to 14 mm. for females. 



'J. Ziphoid whales have lower jaws longer than the 

 upper, by anything up to 60 mm. — meastired in 

 position. 



5. The ptei'ygoids are extremely large and thin, but 

 in oui- skull they are sadly mutilated. 



NOTES TO STUDENTS. 



(1) The origin of the Cetacea is not a solved problem, 

 and, in .spite of a. vast amount of writing in this direction, 

 even the group oi'igin still awaits solution. Any infoniia- 

 lion that can be culled from the crania of the existing 

 whales (that relates to the pro-mammalian skull) should be 

 u?eful data, and yeai*s ago Mr. Scott set out to prepare 

 Dolphins' skulls by a long and roundabout process, hav- 

 ing for its object the preservation of cartilaginous and im- 

 perfectly ossified vestiges, that ai-e not commonly pre- 



