208 Transactions.— Zoology. 
In 1876, when describing the osteology of Tursio metis, I pointed out the 
importance of the palatal aspect as affording a ready means of distinguish- 
ing the skulls of our dolphins, and gave figures of this aspect for the five 
species of most frequent oceurrence.* So far as I know, no additions have 
been made to our knowledge of the subject by observation in this country 
since then, but the general classification of the Delphinide has been con- 
siderably modified, so that it has become necessary to revise eur lists. Un- 
fortunately the great work of Van Beneden and Gervais, which was looked 
forward to as likely to afford us an authoritative settlement of many difficult 
questions, fails us in respect to the dolphins, owing to the death of Professor 
Gervais before this section of the work was written. Professor Flower has, 
however, taken up the subject in a masterly paper contributed to the Zoo- 
logical Society, + and has done much in clearing the ground for more correct 
observation and study of this most difficult class of animals. The key-note 
of this revision by Professor Flower is that he places no dependence on the 
number and size of teeth, or the form and proportions of the brain-case and 
of the beak, all of which were the chief characters relied on by Dr. Gray, 
and attaches most importance to the features presented by the palatal aspect 
of the skull, and particularly the condition of the pterygoid bones, which, he 
points out, in all the Delphinide enclose a large air-sinus. Adopting the 
classification thus indicated, the following is the revised nomenclature of the 
New Zealand Delphinide :— 
1. Orca gladiator, Gray, p. 279. 
(Orca pacifica, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1870 ; Hector, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vii., 260.) 
Two complete skeletons of the Killer are now in the Museum, one having 
been obtained from Tasmania and the other from the coast south of Wan- 
ganui. I consider that there is no valid ground for separating the southern 
from the northern species. The New Zealand species is the larger and 
more robust of the two specimens, and measures 21 feet in total length. 
The number of vertebrz is as follows :— 
Cervical E. Em .. . 7 First 4 anchylosed. 
Dorsal ia $e c a 
Lumbar 10 
Sacral 15 
Caudal 9 
52 
The size of the skull exceeds by 1 that of the large skull in the Otago 
Museum which I formerly described (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vii., 260.) 
* Trans. N.Z. Inst., ix., pl. xii. 
t Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1884, p. 
