ZIPHIUS OBTAINED NEAE DUNEDIN. 243 



were deep purple-black, as were also the dorsal fin, the dorsal aspect of the caudal fin, 

 and the flippers. The black colour of the flipper and shoulder was carried forwards 

 on to the cheek, and ended anteriorly in a rather well-defined rounded area, in the 

 centre of which was placed the eye. Passing forwards from the dorsal aspect of the 

 trunk to that of the head, the black colour became distinctly browner, the dark brown 

 being continued on to the upper lip. Between this median dark area and that 

 surrounding the eye there was a patch of lighter brown, which shaded ofi" below into 

 the white of the throat. The lower jaw, like the upper, was dark brown ; the throat 

 was also brownish anteriorly. The underside of the caudal fin and the ventral aspect 

 of the body to within a few inches of the posterior end of the genito-anal fissure were 

 brown ; the rest of the belly and the lower part of the flank white. There was also a 

 small triangular white area running backwards from the angle of the mouth. 



So far as we know, the form and colour of Ziphius have been noted on five difi'erent 

 specimens, and as all these differ very materially in colour from ours, we have thought 

 it well to be thus particular in our description. 



In the four New Zealand individuals described by von Haast', one of which is figured, 

 the colouring is the exact reverse of what we found, the back — or at least the anterior 

 half of it — being described as white, and the belly black. In the Buenos Ayres 

 specimen described by Burmeister ^ the body was " of a clear grey colour, a little 

 yellowish, but darker on the back, and lighter on the stomach." The fins were 

 almost black. 



The skin was removed with the intention of stuflang it for the Museum, but this 

 was found to be impracticable. The blubber seemed to pass insensibly into the 

 cuticle, and, after removal of the former, the remainder of the skin was so delicate as 

 to be torn by the slightest traction, thus diff'ering very markedly from the tough and 

 coherent skin of a Porpoise. 



2. The Skeleton. 

 The skull presents no points of special interest, with the exception of a trifling 

 difterence in the shape of the nasals. Van Beneden and Gervais's figure of Ziphius 

 chathamiensis^ might have been taken from our specimen. The prenasal cartilage 

 was entirely unossified, the mesethmoid ending, in the dry skull, in a nearly vertical 

 border immediately cephalad of the front boundary of the anterior nasal fossa. In the 

 hyoid the right thyro-hyal is ankylosed to the basihyal, the left being Iree ; both have 

 cartilaginous extremities. The stylo-hyals are tipped with cartilage at both ends, and 

 are united to the basi-hyal by small curved cartilaginous cerato-hyals. 



' Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 466; 1880, p. 232; 1S83, p. 590. 



' Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1866, xvii. p. 94. 



' ' Osteographie des Cetacea,' pi. xxi. figs. 5, 6. 



2o 2 



