480 ; Transactions.—Zoology. 
Arr. LIV.—Notes on the Skeleton of Epiodon nove zealandie. By Juurus 
von Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S., Director of the Canterbury Museum. 
[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 4th May, 1876.) 
Plates. 
Ar the end of July, 1872, the report reached me that a Whale had been 
stranded on a reef in Lyttelton Harbour, Banks’ Peninsula, and that the 
carcass had been towed into one of the small bays by several fishermen for 
securing the oil. 
Being myself prevented by indisposition, Mr. Fuller, the taxidermist of 
the Museum, proceeded to that locality with instructions to secure the 
skeleton, and to make the necessary observations as to dimensions, form, 
sex, and age of the animal. 
When he arrived where the fishermen were at work, he found that the 
blubber had nearly all been taken off, so that he could only partially 
obtain the required measurements. 
The animal, which on dissection proved to be an aged female, had a 
total length of 26 feet ; and Mr. Fuller described the body as being rather 
thick in the middle, ipod to a slender tail, without showing the least 
trace of any dorsal fin. Colour, bluish-black on the upper portion of the 
body; white beneath, the upper portion being marked with numerous oval 
spots, two to three inches across, like the skin of a leopard. The head was 
much swollen. The whole skeleton, with the exception of a few bones, was 
secured to the Canterbury Museum, where it now stands articulated in one 
of its rooms. Plate XXV. shows its general characteristics more fully than 
a mere description can convey. 
Before, however, entering into a description of the principal portions of 
the skeleton, I wish to draw attention to the fact, that our specimen did not 
possess a dorsal fin, nor did a careful examination by Mr. Fuller of the 
central line of the back reveal the least fragment of one, or even the 
indication that it ever had existed. 
However, this absence cannot be claimed as a generic character, as 
Raffinesque stated, when first establishing that genus, because the Epiodon 
australe of Burmeister* by that distinguished veteran naturalist) possesses a 
well-developed dorsal fin. 
Moreover, the forehead of the New Zealand species is much swollen, 
whilst the head of the South American species previously alluded to, is 
tapering. Thus in the enumeration of the principal characteristics of the 
*See the excellent Memoir on that South American species in * Anales del Museo 
Publico de Buenos Aires,” Part V, 
