December 27, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



903 



of Natural History, I saw in the Imperial Mu- 

 seum at Tokyo the skeleton of a Ziphiioid 

 whale belonging to the genus Berardius. Upon 

 inquiry it was learned that the skeleton had 

 been secured from a whaling company which 

 conducted operations on the shores of Tokyo 

 Bay. 



As it was then too late in the season to per- 

 mit of a personal visit to the whaling grounds, 

 my friend Mr. M. Matsuzaki, of the Toyo 

 Hogei Kabushiki Kaisha (Oriental Whaling 

 Co., Ltd.) offered to secure a specimen for the 

 museum. He was able to do so and in 1911 a 

 very complete skeleton reached New York. 



This specimen is referable without doubt to 

 Berardius hairdii Stejneger, the type locality 

 of which is Bering Island, Bering Sea. 



According to Dr. F. W. True,' the collection 

 of the National Museum contains three skulls 

 and three skeletons of this rare species, all of 

 which are from Alaska with the exception of 

 one taken at Centerville, California. I do not 

 know that this whale has been recorded in 

 other localities ; thus the skeleton in the Tokyo 

 Museum with the one just received in New 

 York extends to Japan the range of both the 

 genus and species. 



So far as I have been able to learn the 

 " Tsuchi-kujira," as the Japanese call Berard- 

 ius iairdii, is taken in summer and only in 

 Tokyo Bay, not appearing at other points upon 

 the coast. The other species of this interest- 

 ing genus, B. arnouxi Duvernoy, has been re- 

 corded only in the seas about New Zealand. 



Hoy C. Andrews 



American Museum of Natural History 



on citing the types of new geneea 

 At the Boston Zoological Congress the fol- 

 lowing recommendation was adopted: 



To faeilitate reference, it is recommended that 

 when an older species is taken as the type of a new 

 genus, its name should be actually combined with 

 the new generic name, in addition to citing it with 

 the old generic name.^ 



' ' ' An account of the Beaked Whales of the 

 Family Zyphiidse in the Collection of the TJ. S. 

 National Museum," Bull. 73, 1910, pp. 60, 61. 



'Science, October 18, 1907, p. 521. 



The point is, that a bibliographer should be 

 able to cite the necessary new binomial for the 

 t3Tpical species, from the place where the genus 

 was originally defined. I have never heard any 

 objection to the course suggested, but, pre- 

 sumably through inadvertence, the recommen- 

 dation is not always followed. A noteworthy 

 instance has just come to hand in Mr. Edmund 

 Heller's interesting paper on new genera of 

 African ungulates." He does indeed print the 

 combination Dolichohippus grevyi, but 8ig- 

 moceros lichtensteini (Peters), Beatfagus 

 hunteri (Sclater), Oreodocas fulvorufulus 

 (Afzelius), Ammelaphus imperhis (Blyth) and 

 Nyala angasi (Angas), types of their respec- 

 tive genera, are nowhere given their sup- 

 posedly correct names. 



T. D. A. COCKERELL 



IN THE INTERESTS OP BETTER SPEAKING 



To THE Editor of Science: Would it be at 

 all worth while, now that the innumerable 

 scientific papers of the midwinter are about to 

 be read, to urge their readers to take a few ele- 

 mentary lessons in elocution before they ascend 

 their platforms? It is difficult to compute to 

 what extent esthetic pleasure, as well as fa- 

 cility of comprehension, would be added to if 

 men of science understood better the art of 

 putting their communications before the pub- 

 lic. The main work of the professional elo- 

 cutionist would be to show the prospective 

 reader how to produce full, clear, rotund chest 

 tones, instead of the thin, clouded, head tones 

 which they too often adopt. If the dozen or 

 so of precious hours that this would take is 

 too much to demand, perhaps the following 

 simple rules might be of some assistance; I 

 am sorry that they are so very elementary, 

 but in point of fact they are rules which are 

 violated by fully one half of those who read: 



1. Stand erect, with chest expanded £ind 

 not contracted. 



2. Consult a physician and see that the 

 nasal bones do not obstruct the nasal pas- 



' Smithsonian Misc. Coll., November 2, 1912, 

 Vol. 60, No. 8. 



