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Show 1876.] DR. J. V. HAAST ON OULODON. 457 which the Miocene B. pachyynathus, Wagner, from Pikermi, is the earliest known form, and the four extinct British species, B. etrus-cus, Falc, B. leptorhinus, Cuv., B. hemitezchus, Falc, and B. tichorhinus, Cuv., are more or less modified members. The recently discovered B. deccanensis, Foote, from South India, appears to belong to it also. The several species found in the Siwalik beds and other parts of South Asia appear to have belonged to the genus Bhinoceros as restricted above, with large incisors and oue horn. To include all the extinct members of the family at present known ; the genus Aceratherium, Kaup, must be added for the species with no horn, large incisors, and four toes on the fore feet, Diceratherium, Marsh, for species with indications of a pair of lateral horns on the nasals, and Hyracodon, Leidy, for primitive forms without horns and retaining the complete number of forty-four incisor, canine, and molar teeth, the latter of comparatively simple structure without crochet or crista. When we extend our search for Rhinocerotidse beyond the Miocene period, we find that they cease to be recognizable as such, and become merged into more generalized perissodactyle forms. 4. Further Notes on Oulodon, a new Genus of Ziphioid Whales from the New-Zealand Seas. By J U L I U S V ON H A A S T , Ph.D., F.R.S., Director of the Canterbury M u seum, Christchurch, N e w Zealand. [Received May 1, 1876.] It will be seen from the following notes that the presence of a row of small teeth in the upper jaw is a constant character in my Mesoplodon grayi (P. Z. S. 1876, p. 7) ; and unless it shall be shown by future researches that other species belonging to the genus Mesoplodon have similar rows of small teeth and of a permanent character in the upper jaw, I think that the generic term Oulodon ought to be applied to the Ziphioid Whales distinguished by that peculiar feature, which, so far as I am aware, no others of the group possess. Since I had the pleasure to lay the description of the three skulls obtained on the Chatham Islands before the Society, four specimens belonging to the same Ziphioid, which with our local fishermen goes under the name of Cowfish, have been stranded on the coast near Saltwater Creek, about 30 miles north of Banks Peninsula. One of them, a small male (A) about 13 feet long, was washed ashore on the 15th of December, 1875. On the 29th of December another male (B), 12 feet 9 inches long, was stranded, together with a female (D), 1 7 feet 6 inches long, on the beach a short distance north of the entrance of the Saltwater-Creek Estuary ; whilst another male (C), 13 feet 8 inches long, ran the same day into that small estuary, and was left high and dry by the receding tide. |
