436 PEOF. W. H. FLOWEE ON THE GENUS MESOPLODON. 



ago the few stray individuals of M. bidens occasionally stranded on the shores of North 

 Europe were supposed to be their sole survivors. Since that time it has been proved 

 that they are still numerous in species, and even in individuals (as many as twenty-five 

 of M. grai/i having been stranded on one occasion on the Chatham Islands, and four 

 at another time on the New-Zealand coast, where it is sufficiently abundant and well 

 known to have obtained the local name of Cowfish x ) in the seas which surround the 

 Australian continent, extending from the Cape of Good Hope on the one side to New 

 Zealand on the other, though beyond these limits no specimens have yet been met 

 with. It is the history of the Marsupial Mammals, of Ceratodus, of Terebratula, and 

 of numerous other forms. 



As the food of these Cetaceans consists, as far as is known, mainly of Loligo and 

 other free-swimming Cephalopods, which frequent the open ocean, we need not be 

 surprised if it should be found that their range in space is tolerably wide, although, 

 with our present imperfect information, many of the species appear to be local. 



The great advance that has been made in our knowledge of this interesting group 

 in so short a period should encourage those to whom it is due not to relax their efforts 

 to secure every specimen that may be brought within their reach. 



Postscript. — Since this memoir was communicated to the Society I have received (Dec. 

 4th, 1877) the XV th part of the great ' Osteographie des Cetaces, Vivants et Fossiles,' 

 by Van Beneden and Gervais, in which the latter author describes and figures a com- 

 plete skeleton of Mesoplodon grayi, also obtained by Dr. v. Haast, of the same age and 

 sex as the specimen described above, and from the same locality. It appears to cor- 

 respond in every detail with that described in the present memoir. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 

 PLATE LXXI. 



Fig. 1. Upper surface of cranium of adult Mesoplodon australis, from the specimen 



in British Museum. 

 Fig. 2. Upper surface of cranium of young Mesoplodon grayi, from the specimen in 



the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. 

 Fig. 3. Upper surface of rostrum of adult Mesoplodon haasti, from the specimen in the 



Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. 



1 Haast, P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 7 and 457. 



