PEOFESSOE FLO WEE ON THE EECENT ZIPHIOID WHALES. 211 



Channel about 1840. Described by Gervais as I), europceus, by E. Deslongchamps 

 (loc. cit.) as Dioplodon gervaisii 1 . 



This appears to be at present a unique specimen. 



11. In the British Museum is a skull received from the Cape of Good Hope, with 

 remarkably developed teeth in the lower jaw, passing upwards and backwards, and 

 finally curving inwards so as to meet over the rostrum. This has been named Ziphius 

 layardii by Gray (P. Z. S. 1865, p. 358), and is figured and fully described by Owen 

 (Crag Cetacea, p. 12, pi. 1). The condition of the teeth suggest an individual pecu- 

 liarity ; but Mr. E. Layard has in his possession a single tooth of another individual 

 (also from South Africa) having an exactly similar conformation. 



12. The Australian Museum at Sydney has lately obtained a skeleton of an animal of 

 this group, stranded at Little Bay, about six miles from Sydney, which has not yet been 

 described ; but, judging from the photograph sent by Mr. Krefft, it is closely allied to, 

 if not identical with the last. The teeth, however, are much less developed. 



13. A skull in the Paris Museum, from the Seychelle Islands, has been figured and 

 described by Duvernoy (Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1851) under the name of 

 Mesodiodon densirostris, being apparently identical with the rostrum, of unknown origin, 

 described by De Blainville under that name (Nouv. Diet. d'Histoire Nat. 2nd edit. 

 tome ix. 1817). It has also received the specific name of seychellensis from Dr. Gray 2 . 



14. A complete skeleton of an animal of the same species, obtained from Lord 

 Howe's Island, is in the Australian Museum at Sydney. A brief description has been 

 given of it by Krefft (P. Z. S. 1870, p. 426), and an outline figure in Ann. and Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. vol. vi. 4th ser. 1870, p. 343. 



The last two belong undoubtedly to a species distinct from any of the others, charac- 

 terized by the peculiar form of the ramus of the lower jaw, and of the very massive 

 tooth which it supports. It is to be hoped that further details of the structure of the 

 skeleton, especially of the cervical vertebra? (which appear to be different from those of 

 other members of the group), will be published before long. 



15. In the Museum at Wellington, New Zealand, is a skull and some bones of an 

 animal 9 feet 3 inches long, figured and partially described by Dr. Hector in the Trans. 

 New-Zealand Institute, vol. ii. p. 27, and vol. iii. pis. 14 and 15. This has been named 

 Berardius hectori by Gray (Ann. and Mag. Nat'. Hist. August 1871). The conformation 

 of the skull shows that it is a member of the present group ; but the single compressed 

 tooth in the lower jaw is situated further forwards than in any other known species, 

 thus completing, with densirostris, sowerbyi, layardii, and europceus, the series of dif- 

 ferent positions in the side of the ramus occupied by the developed tooth, and proving 

 its little importance as a generic character. 



16. In the Report of the Director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 

 Cambridge, U. S. A., for the year 1869, among the additions made to the collection by 



1 Figured by Van Beneden and Gervais, op. cit. pi. 24. 2 Ibid. pi. 25. figs. 2, 3. 



vol. viii. — part ill. September, 1872. 2 i 



