Dr. J. E. Gray oyi Ziphinid Whales. 17 



Male: length 11^, wing 6 inches. Female : length 13, wing 

 6'5, tail 3*2 inches. 



The female has whitish eyebrows meeting at the occiput ; 

 her cheeks and throat are whitish ; her neck all round and 

 upper breast are beautifully waved with blackish brown ; her 

 upper parts are liver-brown, with a faint sheen of purple or 

 or green according to the fall of light ; her upper tail-coverts 

 are lighter and mottled ; her secondary coverts are lightly 

 tipped with whitish ; her secondaries broadly tipped, her ter- 

 tiaries edged, and a few of her inner primaries marked near 

 their tips with whitish ; her tail is coloured as her back ; and 

 her underparts are dingy white, the feathers being brownish 

 at their hidden portions ; axillaries and underwings light liver- 

 brown. The soft parts I will leave till I get fresh specimens ; 

 they have changed much in colour in the dry skins before me. 

 The birds were extremely fat. 



III. — On Berardius and other Ziphioid Whales. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.K.S. &c. 



Professor Flower has given an admirable description and 

 figures of the skeleton of Berardius Arnouxi sent to England 

 by Dr. Haast and purchased for the Museum of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons. It is very pleasant to see these excellent 

 and beautifully illustrated essays on the skeleton of Cetacea, 

 which Professor Flower is now publishing in the ' Transactions 

 of the Zoological Society.' 



Professor Flower makes some observations on the other 

 ziphioid whales. 



I. He observes that the small skull in the Museum at 

 Wellington, described and figured in the ' Trans. New-Zeal. 

 Inst.' as the young of the Berardius Arnouxi^ and which I 

 have called Berardius Hectori, belongs to a different section 

 of the group (Trans. Z. vS. vol. viii. p. 216) — which must be 

 stated on the authority of Dr. Hector's figure, for the skull has 

 not been seen in Europe ; and he speaks of it under the genus 

 Mesoplodon^ observing ("from the conformation of the skull ") 

 that the position of the teeth on the side of the jaw is of " little 

 importance as a generic character." I think zoologists will 

 prefer to take their characters from the position of the teeth 

 rather than from a small modification in the form of the bones 

 of which the skull is composed, which no doubt varies more 

 or less in every species. At any rate, this is either a Berardius 

 with the bones of which the skull is composed more like in 

 shape to those of the skull of Mesoplodouy or a Mesophdon with 

 the teeth of a Berardius. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol.xi. 2 



