IlL—ZOOLOGY. 
Art. XIX.—On the Whales and Dolphins of the New Zealand Seas. 
By James Hector, M.D., F.R.S. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 6th November, 1872.] 
Tue study of Cetaceans is beset with difficulties not experienced in other 
groups of the fauna of a country. The huge size of most of the species 
prevents the preservation of complete specimens, and opportunities occur but 
rarely when they can be examined in the recent state, prior to the preserva- 
tion of the skeleton. 
Many of the genera and species have for this reason been founded on 
imperfect and fragmentar ry skeletons that have not been identified with the 
living animal, so that their descriptions are necessarily almost as vague and 
inconclusive as those of the fossil remains of extinct forms. The following 
notes refer chiefly to specimens in the Colonial Museum, and are only offered 
in the hope that they may assist in the collection of more accurate informa- 
tion than we at present possess respecting this most interesting section of our 
fauna. 
The most complete work of reference on this subject is Dr. Gray’s 
“Catalogue of Seals and Whales in the British Museum,” 1866,* taken along 
with his amended synopsis published in 1868.+ The classification adopted in 
the latter work has been chiefly followed, except with reference to the 
Ziphid whales, in which I adopt the groups proposed by Professor Flower in 
an article contributed to Vatwre in December last. 
It should be remembered that in many cases, and especially in the latter 
group, the classification is that of the anatomist, or rather the osteologist only, 
while in some other cases in which the external characters of the animal have 
been obtained, the distinctions are sufficiently minute to satisfy the systematist. 
On this account there is greater difference of opinion respecting the value of 
generic and specific characters in this order than in almost any other, and a 
corresponding confusion and instability in the nomenclature. It is therefore 
important that no opportunity should be neglected of collecting not only 
specimens but also of making sketches, however rough, with exact measure- 
ments of the larger species, showing the proportions, position of fins, and other 
* “ Catalogue of Seals and Whales in the British Museum,” by J. E. Gray, F.R.S., 1866. 
+ “Synopsis of . the Species of Whales and Dolphins in the Collection of the British 
1868. 
oo by J. E. Gray, Ph.D., F.R.S., 
