26 STUDIES OF TASMANIAN CETACEA, 



in fact, contradict it! Von Haast says: — "The pre-fron- 

 " tals (of Owen) begin 6.50 inches from the anterior point of 

 " the rostrum." This is the 'vomer, and was never called 

 anything else by Prof. Owen. Owen's use of the words 

 ■pre-frontah, as applied to whales, can only be understood 

 by recalling the fact that he restricted the word ethmoid 

 to the nasal sense capsules, and the term pre-frontals to the 

 whole of the ethmoidal elements that remained. Now 

 let us look for Owen's^ jjre-fi'onfah in the toothed whale. 

 In his description of Orca brevirostris (cited by Gray) (8a)^ 

 Owen says : — •" The vomer extends to within Ih inch of the 

 " end of the 2>re-maxillaries, and b.ehind these intervenes 

 " upon the bonv palate between the maxillaries, along a 

 " strip of 2 inches and three lines across the broadest part. 

 " This palatal part of the vomer is the lower convexity of 

 " the canal formed by the spout-shaped bone ; the hollow 

 " of the canal is exposed at the upper interspace of the 

 " pre-maxillaries. Here also is seen 2 inches hehin.d the 

 " fore end of the vomer the rough, thick anterior border 

 " of the coalesced jjre- frontal a, which contracts as it passes 

 '■ into their upper border, forming the septum of the nos- 

 " trils, expaiiding below and behind to form the back 

 " wall of the nasal passages." 



It will be obvious that Owen here uses the terms 

 vomer and ■pre-frontaJs for the bones named by Flower, 

 vomer and ethmoid, and also that while the vomer extends 

 forward almost to the tip of the beak, the ethmoid, or p)re- 

 frontah are enclosed by the vomer, which latter is drawn 

 backwards at the base of the skull to cover the spheno- 

 sphenoidal suture. As touching the nasal cavity, the nasal 

 moieties of the vomer extend nearly half-way to the ver- 

 tex, and here coalesce with the ethmoid or pre-frontals, 

 whichever we care to call them. 



True, in his exhaustive monograph on the Ziphiidee, 

 missing this point, says (Bulletin 73, U.S. Nat. Mus., pp. 

 50 and 51): — "The proximal end of the vomer is anky- 

 " losed with the anterior face of the nasals, and reaches up 

 " to the nasal bosses, etc." This should ha/ve been the 

 proximal ends of the pre-frontals, ankylose with the an- 

 terior face of the nasals. 



As a second proof that Owen never confounded the 

 vomer with the pre-frontals, he says at p. 425, of his 

 Anatomy of the Vertebrates, Vol. 2: — "The pre-frontals 

 in the Beluga are lar'ge, , and ascend into view at the back 

 part of the nostrils, where they coalesce with the fronta-ls." 

 This is the common condition in the order Belphinidcv, 



(Sii) Gray, Brit. Mus., Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 235. 



