260 dr. j. haast on a new [May 5, 



2. On the Occurrence of a new Species oiEuphysetes (Euphy- 

 setes pottsii) , a remarkably small Catodont Whale, on the 

 Coast of New Zealand. By Julius Haast, Ph.D., 

 F.R.S., Director of the Canterbury Museum. 



[Eeceived March 26, 1874.] 



Amongst the specimens lately added to the collections in the 

 Canterbury Museum, either new to science or at least to New Zealand, 

 none is more interesting than that of a remarkably small Catodont 

 Whale, allied to Euphysetes grayii, which was stranded amongst the 

 rocks in Governor's Bay near Ohinitaki, the residence of T. H. 

 Potts, Esq., F.L.S., by whom it was secured and presented to the 

 Canterbury Museum. 



As far as I am aware, only another species of the genus Euphy- 

 setes exists in the Australian Museum, obtained in 1851 in Port 

 Jackson, of which a description was given in Wall's 'History of a 

 New Sperm Whale,' 1851, 8vo, p. 37, t. 2 (skeleton), but which, 

 according to Krefft, was entirely written by the eminent zoologist 

 W. Sharpe MacLeay (see British-Museum ' Catalogue of Seals aud 

 Whales,' p. 218 et seq.). 



The specimen under review was found by some fishermen amongst 

 the rocks on the 1 7th of August of this year, when it tried in vain 

 to regain the sea, but was easily secured. 



As Mr. Potts was kind enough to send immediately a telegram 

 from Lyttleton, the taxidermist of the Museum, Mr. F. R. Fuller, 

 was enabled to proceed at once to the spot, by which not only all 

 necessary measurements were secured before the animal was cut into 

 for procuring the oil, but also both skin and skeleton were obtained 

 in perfect order. 



The animal oh examination proved to be a female, apparently full- 

 grown, and had the following dimensions : — 



ft. in. 



Total length 7 2 



Breadth of tail I A\ 



Around body behind pectoral fins 4 2| 



„ „ behind eye 3 3 



„ „ before dorsal fin 3 10 



Pectoral fin, length , 9 



„ breadth 3f 



Colour black, belly greyish white. 



There is only one single valve covering the blow-holes, the slit 

 being 2 inches long, of which 1 \ inch lies on the left and •§ an inch 

 on the right side of the top of the head. The skin surrounding the 

 valve is raised in a lunate form rather conspicuously on the left side, 

 open posteriorly ; the left side of the valve is far more developed 

 and stronger than the right one. The animal, however, was unfor- 

 tunately too much disfigured on the top of the head by blows or 

 other causes, so that it was impossible to ascertain whether the small 



