8f) BULLETIN SP), UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The original description is ftir from satisfactory, and, indeed, applies 

 ecjiuilly well to several other species of the j;enus. Since, however, Oni y 

 expanded bis description in later publications so tliat it is plain to what 

 species he referred, it seems best on the whole to retain the name which 

 has secured a footing in the literature rather than to displace it by 

 Schlegel's D. cschrichtU., published many years later. 



I am unable to enter into the question of the identity of Schlegel's 

 J), eschrichtii and Kasch's I>. leticoplcunifi^ since I saw the type-skeleton 

 of neither. Professor Flower does not state that he saw the type of the 

 former himself, but simply that it "is still to be seen in the Leyden 

 Museum." He is convinced, however, of the identity of the two 

 species. If such be the truth (I do not ])resume to ai)peal from Pro- 

 fessor Flower's decision), the statement of the number of vertebra^ in 

 Schlegel's description must be incorrect. The formula derived from 

 his description would be as follows: 0. 7; D. 15; L. 32; Ca. 37 = 91. 

 This number corres])onds more closely with thnt found in L. albirostHs 

 than with that found in L. JcucopUuruH. I shall use Gray's nan)e, L. 

 acutus^ throughout this section as synonymous with L. leucopleurus and 

 L. cschrieJifii. 



The Lagenorliynchus iierspieiUatiis and Lagcnorhynchus gnhernator of 

 Professor Cope I regard identical with L. acutus. L. gnhernator^ liow- 

 ever, is founded on a young individual (as I have determined from an 

 examination of the typecast and a photograph of the individual from 

 which the same was made), and may, therefore, be disregarded. The 

 typecast of L. pempicUlaluH agrees absolutely in color with Kasch's 

 figure of 7y. Icucopleurus, and the measurements also agree. The nieas 

 urements of L. perspiciUatus also agree very closely with those given 

 by Duguid for L. acuhis. Moreover, the measurements of the l;irge 

 series of skulls mentioned by Professor Cope, which is still in the 

 Museum, agree with those of the type of L. leiicopleurits, as will be 

 seen b\' reference to the table on j). 87. I have also carefully compared 

 one of the skeletons from Cape Ccd, referred to by Professor Cope, with 

 a skeleton of L. acutus from the Faroe Islands, which was lent me for 

 study by Dr. J. S. Billings, Director of the IT. S. Army Medical JMuseum, 

 andean find absolutely no differences but such as are referable to indi- 

 vidual variation. The figure accompanying Professor Cope's paper 

 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 187G, pi. n-), though styled Lagcnorhyn- 

 chus perspiciUatus, is really that of one of the casts of the young L. 

 gnhernator. It agrees exactly with the photograj^h in the Department 

 of Mammals, and may be regarded as an excellent figure of a young 

 L. acutus. The name L. homhifrons, alluded to by Professor Cope (1. c, 

 p. 138), is a slip of the pen, L. persincillatus being intended. 



The distinctions between this si)ecies and the remaining members of 

 the genus will be pointed out in treating of the latter. 



