26 Captain F. W. Hutton on the Geographical 



It is to this latter point that I wish to draw attention — not 

 that I am in possession of information sufficient to prove any- 

 one perhaps of tlie points that I shall raise, but because I think 

 that sufficient is known to establish with gi-eat probability the 

 main features in the zoological history of these islands ; and 

 this sketch which I now presume to offer will, I hope, in- 

 duce others to examine the subject more in detail, and will 

 give a systematic direction to their observations. I propose to 

 take first the zoological evidence — to point out the principal 

 facts that have to be accounted for and the deductions that they 

 lead to ; I will then rapidly glance at the geological and 

 palajontological evidence ; and, finally, I will draw up from the 

 whole the hyjDothesis that appears best able to account for all 

 the phenomena. 



Mammalia. 



Of our two bats, one {Scotophilus tuberculatus) , although 

 not found elsewhere, is closely allied to those of Australia, 

 while the other [Mystacina velutina) forms the only species of 

 a genus peculiar to New Zealand, but related to bats living in 

 South America. 



Two species of seal frequent our shores — the sea-leopard 

 [Stenorhynchus leptonyx)^ which is also found on ice-floes in 

 the antarctic seas, and occasionally extends to Australia, and 

 the fur-seal [Arctocephalus cineretis), which is supposed to 

 occur also on the southern coasts of Australia, and is closely 

 related to, if not identical with, a species found at the Falkland 

 Islands, Cape Horn, South Shetland, and South Georgia. In 

 the Otago Museum there is also a skull that appears to belong 

 to the sea- elephant [Morunga prohoscidea). Mr. Purdie in- 

 formed me that it was picked up a long way inland. 



Of the Cetacea, some twelve or thirteen species are known, 

 belonging to the six different families into which the marine 

 members of this order have been divided ; and it is remarkable 

 that two thirds of them are endemic — that is, not found any- 

 where else. Our two or three species of whalebone-whale 

 have, up to the present, been found nowhere else. The sperm- 

 whale of our northern coasts is probably the same species as 

 that found in Australia and the South Pacific [Catodon aus- 

 tralis) ; it is certainly distinct from the northern sperm-wdiale 

 [G. macroceplialus) ^ as the lower jaw is much narrower*. 



Our ziphioid whales, of which we have three or four species, 

 are all endemic ; and two of them [Berardius Arnuxii and Me- 



* A lower jaw of the New-Zealand sperm-whale in the Auckland 

 Museum is 17 ft. 7 in. in length and only 2 ft. 2 in. in width at the con- 

 dyles ; there are twenty-three teeth on each side, four of which are rudi- 

 mentary only ; the length of the largest tooth is 7 "4 in. 



