| OCR Text |
Show 1876.] DR. J. VON HAAST ON A N E W ZIPHIOID WHALE. 7 genus Dichobune are also considered by Gervais to be more properly Xiphodons; so it is perfectly clear that a more careful comparison than has yet been made will be necessary to determine the claims of either to generic distinction. Being always strongly opposed to the multiplication of generic designations without very adequate grounds, I shall be content in the present instance, to retain the Cuvierian name Xiphodon *, and, in the absence of any certain evidence that it belongs to any of the previously described species, to distinguish it as X. platyceps. It may be added that all the species with which it is most nearly related, found both in England and France, belong to the Upper Eocene epoch, or " proi'cene " of Gervais. The principal dimensions of the cranium are as follows:- inches. centim. Length, in its mutilated state 8*2 20*8 (About 9 inches if perfect.) From anterior margin of orbit to occipital crest , ... 5*3 13*5 From anterior margin of orbit to infraorbital foramen 1*5 3*8 Breadth of upper surface of skull between orbits 2*8 7*2 Greatest parietal breadth 2*4 6*1 Breadth at anterior part of temporal fossa . 1*8 4.6 Height of skull (between frontal region and hinder part of palate) 2*6 6'6 Height of orbit 1-3 3-3 Length of molar and premolar series .... 3*7 9-5 Breadth of palate between posterior molars 9 2*3 ,j „ between middle premolars 1*1 2*8 2. On a New Ziphioid Whale. By JULIUS V O N HAAST, Ph.D., F.R.S., Director of the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand. Communicated by Prof. W . H. FLOWER, F.R.S. [Eeceived November 16, 1875.] In the month of May of this year the Canterbury Museum received from W . Hood, Esq., of the Chatham Islands, three skulls of Ziphioid Whales taken from specimens stranded with about 25 others during the summer of last year on the Waitangi beach of the main island of that group. They were described as "blackfish," all belonging to the same school, by m y informant, who moreover believes that the whole series belonged to the same species. * Not, however, as a subgenus of Anoplotherium, from which it is perfectly distinct. |
