1876.] PROF. FLOWER ON THE SKULL OF A XIPHODON. 3 



characteristic of this species, is obvious. Each feather is worked into 

 the flax of the mat. 



No. 3. A mat of wing-feathers of the Kaka (Mesior meridionalis), 

 made by the natives near Wellington. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Description of tlie Skull of a Species of Xiphodon, Cuvier. 

 By William Henry Flower, F.R.S., F.Z.S., F.G.S., 

 &c. 



[Eeceived November 16, 1875.] 

 (Plate I.) 



The Hon. Auberon Herbert has lately presented to the Museum 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons a fossil cranium which merits de- 

 scription, as in some measure assisting to fill up one of the still in- 

 numerable vacant spaces in the vast and complex history of living 

 beings, a history gradually, slowly, but no less surely, being recon- 

 structed by the united labours of explorers and palseontographers in 

 all parts of the world. 



In some respects, the specimen is provokingly unsatisfactory for 

 the purpose, partly from its own incompleteness, but especially in 

 the absence of certain knowledge as to its locality and geological an- 

 tiquity. As it had passed through several hands before it came into 

 Mr. Herbert's possession, there is no external history belonging to 

 it, except a traditional statement that it was found in the neighbour- 

 hood of Woodbridge, in Suffolk. 



At first little more was to be seen in it than an ovoid mass, nearly 

 nine inches long, of dark grey, very compact, micaceous sandstone, 

 with the surface smoothly rounded, and almost polished, evidently by 

 the action of water. To a superficial observer it might have passed 

 for a large rolled pebble ; but closer examination showed that, be- 

 sides having the general form of the head of an animal, the surface 

 here and there presented darker patches, having a distinctly bony 

 structure, which, from their situation and form, plainly revealed the 

 general outline of the cranium within. 



After a considerable amount of trouble, the closely adhering en- 

 veloping matrix was completely cleared away. The specimen was 

 then shown to consist of the almost entire cranium (skull without 

 lower jaw) of an animal of the size of a small sheep, with all its 

 cavities and external depressions filled up with a matrix of the above- 

 described sandstone, and then so rolled as to wear down some of 

 the most prominent parts, as the zygomatic arch and, unfortunately 

 the whole of the crowns of the teeth ; for the palatal surface was 

 exposed, smooth and polished, and the dental characters are only 

 indicated by the alveoli or by roots worn down to the level of the sur- 

 rounding bone. This is a very great loss, more especially as it is 

 mainly by the form of the enamelled crowns of the teeth, generally 



I* 



