24 BULLETIN' 73, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Since the foregoing account of europceus was wi'itten, a description of tlie 

 type-skull, with two excellent photographic figures, has been published by L. 

 Brasil,'^ of the Caen Museum. A comparison of tlie figures with those of the Atlan- 

 tic City and Long Branch skulls on Pis. 2 and 8 of the present article, confirms 

 the identification of the latter specimens with M. europseus. Besides a brief descrip- 

 tion of the type-skull M. Brasil's paper contains measurements and twc; text fig- 

 ures of the right mandibular tooth, natural size. 



MESOPLODON STEJNEGERI True. 



Mcsoplodon stejnegai True, Proc. IT. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 8, p. 584. Oct. 19, 1885. 



This species was originally described from a single cranium of a young indi- 

 vidual, which was collected by Dr. L. Stejneger on Bering Island, Commander 

 Group, Bering Sea, in 1SS3. With but a single skull, the characters of the species 

 could not be very satisfactorily defined, and some European cetologists have been 

 inclined to doubt its validity.* In 1904, however, another skull was obtained by 

 the National Museum, which made it certain that the species was entirely distinct 

 from M. bidens or other known forms of the genus. Early in the year mentioned 

 Dr. D. S. Jordan, president of Stanford University, called my attention to a small 

 whale, which straniled on the coast of Oregon, IJ miles south of the United States 

 life-saving station on South Beach, Yaquina Bay, near Newport, in February, and 

 proved later to represent the present species. Doctor Jordan's mformation was 

 obtained from Mr. J. G. Crawford, of Albany, Oregon, who wrote him in part as 

 follows, under date of March 7, 1904: 



Herewith I enclose a stereograph of a head of a member of the whale family, which I made at 

 Yaquina Bay, Oregon. The animal was 17 feet long, with fluked tail, soft, smooth skin, blowhole on 

 top of head, and two tusks in the mandible, but no [other] teeth in the mouth. The tusks are thin and 

 apparently hollow. Length of head, 32 inches; width, 14 inches; height, 11 inches; blowhole, 5 inches. 

 Eyes low on head. Width of mandible [jaw] at end: Upper, IJ inches; lower. If inches. Width 

 between tusks, 3 inches. The blubber was about 2 inches thick on the head. It went ashore about 

 the 15th of February, IJ- miles south of the life-saving station on South Beach, 2i miles south of New- 

 port, Oregon. The head had been severed before I arrived. 



A clipping from the Oregonian newspaper contains the following: 



Albany, Oregon, March 2 [1904]. A peculiar specimen of the whale variety has been reported 

 on the Oregon coast, near Newport. J. G. Crawford, of Albany, has just returned from a trip to New- 

 port, where he made a picture of the head of the strange animal. The body was washed upon the beach 

 during the recent storm which swept the coast. It is about 15 feet long. * * * Residents of the 

 vicinity say they have never seen anything like it on the Oregon coast. * * * On either side of the 

 mouth are two villainous-looking tusks several inches in length. They are at the back of the mouth, 

 and extend up to a level with the top of the upper jaw. They are very wide and flat, stjuared on top. 

 The mouth has no other teeth. * * * 



a Bull. 6oc. Linn. Normandie, ser. 6, vol. 1, pp. 216-225, pis, 1, 2 (skxiU); two text-figs, (tooth). 



b "The .slight differences pointed out by Mr. True appear to be individual or local rather than spe- 

 cific." (Van Beneden, Les Ziphioides des mers d'Europe, 1888, p. 100.) See also James A. Grieg, 

 Bergens Museums Aarbog, 1897, No. 5, p. 19. 



