GKAMPUS GRISEUS. 



131 



Grampus salcamata Gorvais. 



This name was first formally used by Gray in the Zoology of the 

 Voyage of the Erebus and Terror, page 31. It was given to a whale 

 described by Schlegel from Japanese drawings and natural histories. 

 fSchlegel did not see any specimens of the species described, and Gray 

 did not examine the original accounts from which Schlegel drew his 

 description. Certainly we are getting tar away from nature in this 

 matter. Fortunately, however, Gervais applied the name to a skull of 

 a grampus received from Japan, and thus for the first time placed the 

 new species, if new species it be, within the reach of investigation. 



In considering this skull we ought not to be influenced by Schlegel's 

 remarks on the color, etc., of the animal represented in the Japanese 

 drawings, because that author believed that the cetacean was a species 

 of Killer. Gray's opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, it does not ap- 

 pear probable to me that the author of the concise and well-illustrated 

 descri[)tion of the Killer in the Ahhandluwjen would mistake a Grampus 

 for a Killer. I consider the skull figured by Gervais in the Osteographie 

 (pi. LXiv, fig. 5, p. 5(58) as the type of the so called Grampus salcamata. 

 Upou examining this figure, however, we are at once made aware of 

 the inadvisability of basing species in this genus on the proportions of 

 the skull alone, on account of the great amount of individual variation 

 in cranial characters. Figures 4 and 5 on plate lxiv of the Osteographie 

 apparently represent skulls distinguishable specifically at a glance. 

 But in the national collection there are two skulls which might almost 

 have served for the basis of these two figures, yet were both obtained 

 from Cape Cod, Massachusetts (together with many others), at the same 

 time, and are almost unquestionably specifically identical. 



We will consider a few of the proportions common to Gervais' skull 

 of G. sakamata from Japan, and No. 2244G of our collection, from Cape 

 Cod, Massachusetts, and some which are common to the skull of G. griseus 

 from Concarnean, figured on the same plate, and No. 22447 of our collec- 

 tion, from Cape Cod. It should be remarked first, however, that both our 

 skulls and those figured in the Osteographie are from young individuals. 



Proportions coiiinion to G, salcamat'i and 



No. 22t4U IT. S. N. M., from Cape 



Cod, Massachusetts. 



1. Distance from left maxillary notcb to ex- 



tremity of rostrum equals distance Iroiii 

 same notch to marj^in of raaxilla, over 

 post-orbital process of frontal. 



2. Lengtli of beak equals width from base of 



maxillary notch to ante-orbital enlargement 

 of opposite froutal. 



3. The width ot the widest part of the niax- 



ilhe anterior to the notch is contaiueil one 

 and one-half times in the length of the beak. 



4. The greatest width of the inteniiaxillic an- 



terior to the notch la contained a little less 

 than three times in the lenjrtii from the an- 

 terior margin of the nares to the extremity 

 of the rostrum. 



Proportions common to G. griscug from Con- 



carne.m and No. 22147 U. S. N. M., from 



Capo Cod, Massachusetts. 



1. Distance from left maxillary notcli to ex- 



tremity of rostrum equals distance from 

 same notch to ante-orbital enlargement of 

 frontal. 



2. Length of beak is less than the same width. 



3. The same width is contained one and one- 



fourth times in the length of the beak. 



4. The same width is contained but two and 



one-half times in distance from the nares 

 to the extremitj- of the rostrum. 



