BEAKED WHALES, FAMILY ZIPHIID.E TRUE. 3 



DESCRIPTIONS OF SKULLS AND SKELETONS OF ZIPHIOID WHALES. 



» 



Genus MESOPLODON Gervais. 



Of this genus the National Museum has four specimens; namely, (1) a skull 

 (Cat. No. 21112, U.S.N.M.) obtained at Bering Island, North Pacific Ocean, in 1SS3, 

 by Dr. L. Stejneger, and made the type of the species M. stejnegeri True; (2) a 

 skull and photographs (Cat. No. 143132, U.S.N.M.) of the same species, from 

 Yaquina Bay, Oregon, obtained in exchange from Mr. J. G. Crawford in 1904; 

 (3) a skeleton, cast, and photographs of a young male (Cat. No. 23346, U.S.N.M.), 

 hitherto supposed to represent M. hidens, caught at Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 

 1889; and (4) a skeleton of an adult (Cat. No. 49880, U.S.N.M.) from the Chatham 

 Islands, New Zealand, representing M. grayi.'^ 



In addition to this material, I have had the privilege of examining two skulls 

 belonging to the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and hitherto supposed to rep- 

 resent M. bidens, and two skeletons belonging to the American Museum of Natural 

 History. Of these last, one is that of an adult and was pui'chased In' the American 

 Museum under the name of M. layardi, but was subsequently recognized to be a 

 new species and was described by Mr. Andrews, under the name of Mesoplodon 

 howdoini. The other is that of a young individual, and has been labeled AI. grayi. 



As already noted by Dr. G. M. Allen,* only four specimens of Mesoplodon have 

 been recorded hitherto from the Atlantic coast of the United States. These are: 



1. An adult, sex unknown, but probabl}'^ female, 16 feet long, found at Nan- 

 tucket, Massachusetts, in 1867, and recorded by Prof. L. Agassiz.'' The skull of 

 this individual is in the Museum of Comparative Zoolog3', Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



2. A young male, 12^ feet long, captured at Atlantic City, New Jersey, March 

 28, 1889. " The skeleton (Cat. No. 23346, U.S.N.M.) is in the National Museum. 



3. A young female, 12 feet 2 inches long, stranded at Annisquam, Massachusetts, 

 August, 1898, and recorded by the late Alpheus Hyatt.'' The skeleton is in the 

 museum of the Boston Society of Natural History. 



4. An adult female, said by fishermen who measured it to have been 22 feet 

 long, entangled in pound nets at North Long Branch, New Jersey, July 22, 1905, 

 and recorded by Dr. Glover M. Allen. « The cranium of this individual is preserved 

 in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. The rostrum and niandil)le, which were 

 originally obtained, were afterwards destroyed by accident. 



I haA'e examined all this material. Writers who have had occasion to menti(m 

 these four specimens thus far have referred them tacitly to Mesoplodon hidens 

 (Sowerby), but, after a careful study of them, I have ascertained that while the 

 Nantucket specimen belongs to that species, the Atlantic City and Long Branch 



"■ As this species is well known, the skeleton is not described in thLs paper. 



i>Amer. Nat., vol. 40, 1906, p. 366. 



cProc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 11, 1S66-68, p. 318. 



d Idem, vol. 29, 1899, p. 9. 



«Amer. Nat. vol. 40, 1906, p. 357. 



