6 PKOF. T. JEFFEBY PAEKEE ON THE 



and most elevated on the ridges : those forming the ventral edge are not perceptibly 

 hooked backwards. Teeth absent. Surface silvery, with black, irregular, wavy, sub- 

 vertical stripes and spots; " forehead " and membranous portions of snout blue-black ; 

 fins crimson. 



Total length 12-5 feet; greatest height 15-25 inches; greatest thickness 3-5 inches. 



As all the figures of Begalecus of which I have been able to obtain information are 

 small, and wanting in detail, I have included in the illustration to the present paper a 

 figure of the head (PI. II. fig. 1), two showing the mode of termination of one of the 

 rays of the crest (figs. 2 and 3), and one of a transverse section of the body (fig. 4). 



The specimen, as I received it, was cut into four pieces : fortunately, however, the 

 injury to the bones was slight, in spite of the inevitable fractures of the delicate neural 

 spines and fin-rays ; and the skeleton, as now mounted for the Otago University 

 Museum, is fairly perfect. The work of preparation was a decidedly difficult one on 

 account not only of the fragility of the bones, but also of the extreme thickness and 

 toughness of the periosteum covering the vertebral centra ; it was, however, very 

 successfully performed by my senior assistant, Mr. E. Jennings. 



Until all my drawings were made, I was under the impression that no description of 

 the skeleton of Begalecus had been published ; I now find that there is an account of 

 that of B. banksii, by Liitken \ written in Danish about ten years ago. In an abstract 

 of his researches 2 , Liitken seems to say that the head of the specimen described by 

 him was destroyed ; but even if this were not the case, I am disposed to think that it 

 is better for me to publish an independent account of another species, rather than wait 

 many months for his paper, of which only the plates would be of any use to me, owing 

 to my ignorance of Danish. 



It will be convenient to describe the skeleton under the following heads : — 



1. The cranium, or brain-case, with the nasals and suborbitals. 



2. The suspensory apparatus, with the upper and lower jaws. 



3. The opercular bones. 



4. The hyoidean apparatus. 



5. The branchial arches. 



6. The vertebral column and dorsal fin. 



7. The shoulder-girdle and pectoral fin. 



8. The hip-girdle and pelvic fin. 



In the description of the skull, I have used the terms employed in Parker and 

 Bettany's ' Morphology of the Skull ; ' for the rest of the skeleton the names are, for 

 the most part, those employed in Huxley's ' Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals.' 



1 ' Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra den naturhistoriske Forening ' for 1881, p. 190. 



2 Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, vol. xi. p. 176. 



