On the Dermal Armour of Crocodilus Hastingsise. 375 



3. " On a Fossil Bird and a Fossil Cetacean from New Zealand." 

 By Thomas H. Huxley, F.R.S., Sec. G.S., Prof, of Natural History, 

 Government School of Mines. 



These remains were, the right tarso-metatarsal bone of a member 

 of the Penguin family, allied to Eudyptes, but indicating a bird of 

 much larger size than any living species of that genus, larger indeed 

 than even the largest Aptenodytes, and to which the name of Pala- 

 udyptes antarcticus was given, — and the left humerus of a small ceta- 

 cean, more nearly resembling that of the common Porpoise than that 

 of any other member of the order (Balcena, Balcenoptera, Monodon, 

 Delphinus, Orca, Hyperoodon) with which the author had been able 

 to compare it. Nevertheless, as there are very marked differences 

 between the fossil humerus and that of Phoccena, Prof. Huxley 

 named the species Phoceenopsis Mantelli. Mr. W. Mantell, F.G.S., 

 to whom the author was indebted for the opportunity of examining 

 these bones, stated that the beds whence they were obtained were 

 certainly of Tertiary age, and of much earlier date than the epoch 

 of the Dinornis, which he considered to have been contemporaneous 

 with man. The Palesudyptes was from an older bed than the 

 Phocisnopsis. 



Prof. Huxley drew attention to the remarkable fact that a genus 

 so closely allied to the Penguins which now inhabit New Zealand,, 

 and are entirely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, should have 

 existed at so remote an epoch in the same locality. 



4. "On the Dermal Armour of Crocodilus Hastingsia." By 

 Thomas H. Huxley, F.R.S., Sec. G.S., Prof, of Natural History, 

 Government School of Mines. 



The author, after briefly mentioning the very complete armour of 

 articulated dorsal and ventral scutes which he had recently discovered 

 (and described before the Linnean Society) in two of the three 

 living genera of AlligatoridcB, viz. Caiman and Jacare, showed that 

 similar scutes are found associated with the remains of Crocodilus 

 Hastingsia, a very fine skull and some scutes of which reptile, from 

 Hordwell, kindly lent to Prof. Huxley by Mr. S. Laing, F.G.S,, 

 were exhibited. With respect to the suggestion of Prof. Owen, 

 that the Alligator Hantoniensis might possibly be a variety of Croco- 

 dilus Hastingsii, the author stated that he had observed in several 

 specimens of the recent Crocodilus palustris, which by its straight 

 premaxillo-maxiilary suture and the general form of its skull most 

 nearly approaches C. Hastingsia, a tendency to assume the alligator 

 character of a pit, instead of a groove, for the reception of the man- 

 dibular canine. Sometimes there is a pit on one side and a groove 

 on the other, and sometimes incomplete pits on both sides in this 

 Crocodile. Crocodilus Hastingsice still more nearly approaches the 

 Alligutoridce in the number of its teeth and in the characters of the 

 dermal armour now described ; so that the probability of its occa- 

 sionally assuming the Alligatorian dental pits on both sides is greatly 

 increased. 



