1 1.— Z OOLOGY. 



Art. XIX. — On the Whales and Dolphins of the New Zealand Seas. 

 By James Hector, M.D., F.E.S. 



[Read hefore the Wellington Philosophical Society, 6th November, 1872.] 



The 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 fragmentary 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 Musevim, 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.t The classification adopted in 

 the latter work has been chiefly followed, except Avitli reference to the 

 Ziphid whales, in which I adoj)t the groups proposed by Professor Flower in 

 an article contributed to Nature in December last. 



It should be remembered tha,t 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 systematise 

 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. 

 t " Synopsis of the Species of Whales and Dolphins in the Collection of the British 

 Museum," by J. E. Gray, Ph.D., F.R.S., 1868. 



