| OCR Text |
Show 262 DR. J. HAAST ON A N E W [May 5, sides of the roof of the mouth, provided for their reception in the gums. However these minor deviations would not constitute such a specific difference as to separate it from the Australian species did not the rest of the skeleton present such marked differences. MacLeay states that Gray's Euphysetes has 52 vertebrae; but I find that there must be some mistake in the enumeration of the different forms of vertebrae, because when added they only amount to 51, viz. : - 7 cervical, 14 dorsal, 9 lumbar, 21 caudal (of which 13 have chevron bones attached together) ; total 51. The number of the vertebrae of the New-Zealand Euphysetes is one less, namely 50; moreover they are differently arranged. Its seven cervical vertebrae are soldered together and have all the peculiar characteristics of the Australian species, whilst it has only 12 dorsal (instead of 14), 11 lumbar (instead of 9), and 20 caudals with 8 chevron bones attached (instead of 21). The Australian species has 14 ribs, whilst the New-Zealand species has only 12, of which the first one is broad and flat and has, like the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, two articulating surfaces, whilst, according to MacLeay, the Australian species has only one articulating surface on the first rib ; the second rib still exhibits a considerable breadth, whilst the succeeding ones become gradually narrower; the last six ribs, which assume a rounded shape, possess only one articulating surface. Thus, even supposing that the minor differences in the form of the skull might possibly be due to sex, the number, arrangement, and form of the vertebrae and ribs alone would prove the distinct specific character of the New-Zealand specimen, for which, therefore, I wish to propose the specific name of Euphysetes pottsii, in honour of T. H . Potts, Esq., F.L.S., by w h o m the specimen was secured to science. The contents of the stomach consisted of a dark slimy matter from which no clue could be obtained as to the usual food of the species under review; but we may conclude, from the absence of the horny beaks of Cephalopods, of which some years ago we obtained nearly half a bushel in the stomach of Berardius arnouxii, that this species does not feed on them ; moreover the position and smalluess of the mouth shows that this animal is probably a ground-feeder, existing perhaps on the smaller Hydroid Zoophytes. Before concluding I wish to draw .attention once more to the remarkable asymmetry of the cranium of this new whale, which, probably more than any other known catodont cetacean, shows this so conspicuously. W e are so accustomed to observe almost invariably in the skeletons of the vertebrates a perfect bilateral symmetry, that any deviation from this rule is generally regarded, if not as a monstrosity, at least as a deformity. It is therefore very striking to find, in a whole and important cetacean section, the Denticete, the upper surface of the skull, with very few exceptions, unsym-metrical, amongst which the family of the Catodontidee is the most conspicuous. This family, amongst other characteristics, is distin- |
