492 PROF. FLOWER ON THE DELPHINID^. [NoV. 20, 



Museum, upon which Ur. Gray founded the species, are extremely 

 meagre. I have therefore taken considerable pains to endeavour to 

 ascertain whether the specimen itself can still be appealed to. In 

 the 'Zoology of the Erebus and Terror,' p. 36 (1846), Dr. Gray, 

 under the head o^ Lagenorhynchus acutus (D. eschrichtii, Schlegel, 

 being given as a synonym), says : — " This sjiecies was first described 

 by me from a skull in Brookes's Museum, which is now at Leydeu, 

 and Mr. Scldegel has described it from a skeleton sent from the 

 Faroe Islands." The statement that the original skull is " now at 

 Leyden " is repeated in the 'Catalogue of Seals and Whales ' in 

 the British Museum, 18G6. Judging from the extract quoted above, 

 Schlegel apparently was not aware of the specimen being in the 

 Leiden Museum in 1841, which is rather remarkable, as he was at 

 that time, although not actually in charge of the collection, a member 

 of the staff"; but this is no proof that it was not there. 



With the obliging assistance of Dr. Jentink, in August last I 

 carefully examined all the Dolphins' skulls in the collection, witli a 

 view to ascertain whether Gray's type skull is there or not. A 

 difficulty at once arose from the fact that none of the skulls have 

 any number or mark upon them by which their history could be 

 traced with certainty. They are all placed upon wooden stands, to 

 which they are fixed in such a way that they can be readily taken 

 off for examination and replaced ; the names and indications of 

 origin are written on cards fixed on the stands, and there is unfortu- 

 nately no guarantee that the latter may not have been changed, as 

 in some cases it is quite evident has been done. 



Looking through the skulls, I found one which had been recently 

 labelled "D. tursio,'^ which evidently belonged to the species in ques- 

 tion. There was no history on the card or any indication of its origin 

 on the skull itself. The idea at once occurred that this might be the 

 sought-for specimen. Comparing it with the figure and the de- 

 scription in tlie ' Spicilegia,' the agreement was quite as close as could 

 be expected. The teeth, as near as they could be counted, were of 

 the right number, the length of the beak (8 inches) and its breadth 

 at base (4g) were exact; the only difference was in the length of the 

 cranial portion of the skull, which Dr. Gray gives as 7 inches, and 

 which I made as 8 ; but this is a difficult measurement to take ex- 

 actly, especially if taken rapidly, as we know was Dr. Gray's habit. 

 The absence of all indication uj)un the skull itself of its history in 

 no way militates against its coming from Brookes's Museum ; on the 

 contrary, rather corroborates it, as the other skull in the collection, 

 that of D. lonyirostris, also described by Gray in the ' Spicilegia,' 

 and which Schlegel himself mentions in his ' Abhandlungen ' (p. 19) 

 as having been received from the collection of Dr. Brookes, is equally 

 witliout indication of its provenance, and is otherwise in much the 

 same general condition. We have thus evidence from published 

 writings of two Dolphins' skulls passing from the Brookesian to the 

 Leiden Museum — the type of I), acutus, as stated by Gray, and 

 the type of D. longirostris, as stated by Schlegel. Of the identi- 

 fication of the latter there is no doubt ; its characters are quite unlike 



