228 DESCRIPTION OF VERTEBRATE REMAINS, CHIEFLY 



met with another specimen indicating a fifth member of the same family. In a 

 visit to the Centennial International Exhibition, in one of the cases belonging to 

 the Smithsonian Institution, among a collection of fossils from the Ashley Hiver 

 phosphate beds, I observed the specimen to which I allude. Having made appli- 

 cation for its nse, it was at once obligingly loaned to me by Mr. W. P. Blake, the 

 gentleman in charge. 



The specimen, represented in figs. 1, 2, PI. xxxii., like the foregoing, consists 

 of the detached rostrum in advance of the nares, but is better preserved at the 

 point In the present condition it is about two feet in length ; and it indicates 

 an animal not only larger than any of those to which the other specimens pertained, 

 but with the exception of the Hi/peroodon, one of the largest of its kind. The 

 bones of which it is composed are completely co-ossified, so as to leave barely a 

 trace of their original separation, and the specimen is of the usual ivory-like density. 

 The supra-vomerine canal is open throughout, but is exposed only for a few inches 

 at the end. 



The beak is long and narrow, with the sides more nearly parallel than in the 

 previously described specimens. The basal half is prismoid with the upper surface 

 remarkably flat, while the anterior half assumes a more conical form. No crest 

 extends along the middle above as in the two rostra referred to Choneziphius, nor 

 is there any trace visible of a median groove indicating the original separation of 

 the intermaxillaries. 



The lateral borders of the beak posteriorly form a subacute ridge defining the 

 upper nearly flat surface from the inclined palatine surfaces beneath. The ridge 

 extends further forward on the right than on the left, and finally subsides at the 

 conical anterior end of the beak. At the termination of the left ridge there are 

 two foramina, near together, the exit of neuro- vascular canals which open forward 

 into grooves extending anteriorly. On the right there are two corresponding 

 foramina, but one is situated on the lateral ridge several inches behind the other. 



The prenarial fossae appear to have resembled those of Choneziphius, being 

 spoon-shaped concavities extending forward into grooves which end in canals 

 penetrating to the interior of the beak. 



The left prenarial fossa together with its grooved extension, is longer than the 

 right and wider one. Externally it is defined, by a crescentic ridge, from the supra- 

 orbital fossa. Internally it was separated from the right prenarial fossa by a deep 

 wedge-shaped notch communicating below with the posterior extremity of the 

 supra-vomerine canal. 



The prenarial fossae and the grooves proceeding forward from them define an 



