Haasr.— Notes on Skeleton of Epiodon nove zealandis. 438 
before the septum narium is formed the premaxillaries coalesce for a short 
space.* The maxillaries, which begin with a narrow point, having a down- 
ward sloping surface, gradually widen, and after having in about the centre 
of the rostrum a plane surface the outer side rises to the orbital notch, 
after which they expand greatly with a deeply concave surface, rising poste- 
riorly to the highest part of the crest, uniting with the frontals through 
their whole extent. 
The high maxillary crest of Hyperoodon is represented only by a small 
elevation at the beginning of the broad concave surface, similar to Epiodon 
australe, as pointed out by Professor H. Burmeister in his exhaustive descrip- 
tion of that South American species. 
A deep and narrow furrow begins on the lower side of both premaxil- 
laries near the point, continuing after their junction with the maxillaries 
along the latter bones, where it runs below their lateral edge to about the 
middle of the rostrum, gradually getting shallower and narrower. 
In these grooves small vascular cavities are observable, as if they had 
once served for rudimentary teeth, of which, however, not the least remnant 
could be observed, all without doubt having been absorbed. 
The vomer begins 5:50 inches from the point of the rostrum, between 
the premaxillaries, forming for 8:75 inches a narrow convex ridge, which 
in its broadest or central portion is only 0-25 inch broad. The palatal sur- 
face of the rostrum is slightly bent upwards near the point. 
The united periotie and tympanie bones are of considerably less size 
than those of Berardius arnuxii. 
The tympanie bone, of which a figure is given (Pl. XXIV., Fig. 1, 
A. upper surface, A’. lower surface), is shorter, the anterior end not being 
so much prolonged, and thus resembling more in form the same bone in 
Hyperoodon. The same can be said of the periotie bone, which is also not 
only shorter but has the notches between the lobes much shallower than 
Berardius. 
The lower mandible, which projects about two inches beyond the point 
of the rostrum, consists of two thin callous rami, which gradually become 
narrower till their termination at the point, the bony substance of which 
they are composed getting more spongy towards the beginning of the sym- 
physis. From this beginning the united bones curve upwards. At the 
point two small teeth are embedded in sockets, the tips rising only a few 
lines above them. They are covered with rugose cement to the very point, 
which in their lower part forms wart-like prominences. 
* I have given these details because in another skull of the same species which the 
Canterbury Museum possesses, and of which I shall give the measurements with some 
notes in an appendix, besides some minor points, a very marked difference occurs in the 
form of the pretrontals. : 
D 
