the Al)iiiUi>'S of (he (ieitds Lipote:^. 2\\',\ 



MilK'r concluded, tVom tlie somewhat meagre ruatt!rial * before 

 liiiu, that it liad clo.-or atlinities with the ►Soiitli-Ainerican 

 Inia than with any other livin<^ gcnu.<. This view has been 

 accepted by Winge ( Vidensk. Medd. t'l a Dansk naturh. Foren. 

 Ixx. [). 8-1, iyi9), who refers both Liputes and biia together 

 witlj PontisteSy Pontoporia^ Saurude/j'/iis, and Plutaniski, to 

 the family Phitanistidju. As com|)arL'd with Jnia, Lipotes is, 

 according to WinL;e, more primitive in having more slender 

 teeth, and less primitive in having the facial ttiissa relatively 

 wider bfiiind. 



The British Museum has just received from Dr. Skinner at 

 Hankow a most valuable and important donation — namely, a 

 female Lipotes and a male Meoiwris, both in the flesh. We 

 are now engaged in dissecting the3<! specimens, and hojje to 

 publish a full account of our work before long. But since 

 the dissection of Lipotes, so far as it has gone, has brought to 

 light facts which seem to have an important bearing upon the 

 relationships of that genus, it seems advisable to publish tliis 

 preliminary note. 



In its external form Lipotes presents a certain resembhmce 

 to the Gangetic dolphin, Platanista, though the neck is less 

 evident than in the latter ; the blow-hole is similarly longitu- 

 dinal and sinistral in position ; the eyes are very small, 

 though less reduced than in Platanista; the dorsal fin has 

 the same position, although it relatively is much larger, and 

 the general form of the flippers is not uulike in the two 

 genera. 



In ilissecting the blow-hole we have found that the spiracle 

 is guarded by a pair of large floating bones placed one on 

 each side of the subcutaneous narial slit, and forming together 

 its posterior lip. The iimer edges of these bones are em- 

 bedded in the fibrous tissue surrounding the blow-hole. 

 Each is provided with a double retractor muscle arising from 

 the facial crest behind, and with a ))rotractor muscle arising 

 from the neighbourhood of the maxillary notch. The front 

 end of each bone is closely connected with the fibrous pad 

 forming the anterior valve of the blow-hole, and eacii pro- 

 tractor muscle sends fibres into the sides of that pad. On 

 retraction the floating bones, which diverge anteriorly, and 

 the front valve all move backwards together, their o|)posod 

 edges coming into close contact and tightly closing the 

 spiracle. 



* A skull with cervical vertebra', n pliotugTni)h of the aniinnl in the 

 Hesh, and a dt'scription of its exterior dniwii up by thecolk-ctor, Mr. C. M. 



llnv. 



