BEAKED WHALES, FAMILY ZIPHIID^ TKUE. 25 



The head is equipped with a blowhole, like that of a whale. The eyes are very low, almost under- 

 neath the lower jawe. 



The body is in a good state of preservation, the flesh having been torn but little by the birds. 



On receipt of the foregoing information, letters were immediately addressed to 

 Mr. Crawford and also to 'the keeper of the life-saving station at South Beach, 

 Capt. Otto Wellander, asking that, if possible, the entire skeleton be preserved. 

 Captain Wellander replied that the whale had not been dead long when washed 

 ashore; that he had tried to find the body, but that the high tides had either carried 

 it away or buried it under driftwood. 



The skull when cleaned passetl into the possession of Mr. J. G. Crawford, who 

 sent to the Museum some excellent photographs of it, and also of the head before 

 the flesh had been removed. Later he sent the skull itself to the Museum for my 

 examination, and finally very generously presented, it to the Museum in exchange. 



The skull is that of an adult individual, in nearly perfect condition, with the 

 mandible and teeth. The parts missing are the left malar, the left tympanic bone, 

 the distal ends of the pterj^goids and the proximal ends of the premaxillse. (PI. 3, 

 fig- 2.) 



SKULL. 



The Oregon skull exliibits all the characters included in the original diagnosis 

 of the species," but two of these, namely, the lack of a groove in front of the pre- 

 maxillary foramen, and the vertical position of the premaxillse distally, I do not 

 at present consider of any importance, as they are shared by M. hidrr^s. The species, 

 as represented by the Oregon skull, however, presents other characters which clearly 

 differentiate it from any other species of the genius. As it is without a basirostral 

 groove, it allies itself in that respect to M. hUlcns, europseus, and liectori. Unlike 

 those species, it has the premaxillary foramen behind the maxillary foramen, and in 

 this respect resembles densirostris and grayi. Perhaps the most salient characters in 

 which stejnegeri. differs fi'om hidens and all other known sjiecies are the erect position 

 and flat surface of the supraoccipital and the very prominent backward extension 

 of the frontal plate of the maxilla. This backward extension is so great that when 

 the beak is horizontal a vertical line through the posterior margin of the maxilla 

 passes considerably behind the temporal fossa. The only species which approaches 

 stejnegeri in this respect is hedori, but in. the latter the supraoccipital instead of 

 being flat above the condyles is very strongly convex. 



Another very marked character of stcjnegen is that the extension of the lateral 

 free margin of the orbital plate of the frontal, anterior to the orbit, is equal to the 

 length of the orbit itself. In hidens and all other known species this extension is 

 only from one-third to one-half the length of the orbit. Numerous other dis- 

 guishing characters will be mentioned in the course of the following description of 

 stcjnegen, which is drawn from the adult Oregon skidl, but modified when necessary 

 by reference to the type skull from Bering Island. Comparisons are made chiefly 

 with M. hidens, which is on the whole the best known species. 



oProc. U. S. Nat. Mua., vol. 8, 1885, p. 585. 



