1880.] DR. J. VON HAAST ON ZIPHIUS NOV^-ZEALANDI^. 235 



New-Brighton specimen ; but on examining them more closely, it 

 at once became clear that they were not natural, but were the scars 

 of injuries the animal had received during lifetime at various periods. 

 At the same time the animal was also covered with a number of 

 seamed scars running in all directions, of which the form and reo-u- 

 larity proved also that they could not have been caused by the animal 

 being thrown amongst the rocks, but must have been inflicted by 

 some other animal. Examining the oval spots, 1 found that although 

 they varied from a length of 2 inches to that of 3 inches, and from a 

 breadth of 1 inch to that of 2 inches, they had invariably the same 

 character, viz. that of an oval scar of a dirty whitish colour, both 

 in the white and the black coloration of the skin, with two well- 

 marked points in the centre, always about one and a quarter to 

 one and a half inch apart. These two dots had evidently been 

 the wounds inflicted, round which the scar had been formed. In 

 some instances these points were quite healed over, so as to show 

 that the injury had been done long ago ; in others there were two 

 fresh sores, as if the animal had been struck only a few hours before 

 its death. 



Although occurring all over the body, with the exception of the 

 back, these oval scars were most frequent below the belly, and princi- 

 pally round the pudendum, where they were often so close together 

 that the scars not only ran into each other, but evidently covered 

 each other, so as to show that the same spot had been struck 

 repeatedly. The seamed scars, on the other hand, occurred more 

 numerously on both sides of the animal ; only a few crossed the back 

 or reached to the belly. With a few exceptions these seamed scars 

 were always in pairs 1| to IJ inch apart, and each about | inch 

 broad. Some of them ran for a considerable distance, seven to 

 eight feet, others only for the space of a few inches. That there had 

 been a considerable struggle became evident from the direction these 

 seamed scars had taken, some forming regular hooks ; some of 

 these wounds were evidently of long standing, being well healed ; 

 others had been inflicted a very short time before the strandino- of 

 the animal, as they were quite fresh and deep, and sometimes had 

 a breadth off of an inch. From the character of these wounds, it 

 appears certain that they could have only been made by an animal or 

 animals of the same species with the two teeth of the lower jaw, the 

 distance of their apices being one and a quarter to one and a half 

 inch from each other, and thus corresponding with both the oval and 

 seamed scars. The aged female from the Kaiapoi beach, of which 

 I gave some particulars on the preceding pages, was scarred and 

 seamed in exactly the same manner. 



It is thus evident that the females are subject to attacks either 

 from the males during rutting-time, or that they fight amongst them- 

 selves. In the latter case (which, however, appears to me to be rather 

 improbable) the teeth of the specimen figured must have been of 

 considerable use to the animal ; and it is then difficult to understand 

 how the full-grown or aged animals, when their teeth disappear below 

 the gums, can succesfuUy resist the attacks of the younger members 



