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Show 1882.] ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE COMATHLiE. 731 thirteen feet one inch, the other twelve feet six inches, which may be taken as the average size of the circumference of the head of the full-grown male. In the past three seasons I have seen thousands of them; and from constant careful observation while they were in life, and very often close about the ship-also when dead, examining many of their skulls after being taken on board and flenched, the only conclusion that can be come to is, that there is but one species of the Bottlenose Whale inhabiting the Northern seas. There are no flat-headed females. It is only the older males that have the flat perpendicular heads notched back towards the beak, with high crest and close frontal bones. The accompanying sketches of male Whales (figs 1-5, p. 728), and photographs of their skulls (figs. 6-9, p. 729), will help to show how their heads flatten, and also the progressive manner in which the bones of the head enlarge and close up as they become older. 3. O n the Classification of the Comatulce. By P. H E R B E R T C A R P E N T E R , M.A., Assistant Master at Eton College. [Received November 23, 1882.] In the last part of the Proceedings of this Society Prof. F. J. Bell * has proposed " a method of formulating the results attained to, as regards our knowledge of the specific characters of the members" of the family Comatulidce. That such a method is absolutely necessary for systematic work in a family which comprises so few genera but so many species, was made clear to me before I had been studying the group for many months ; and I was therefore in no way surprised to hear that Prof. Bell had arrived at the same conclusion soon after his commencing the examination of the large collection of Comatulce in the British Museum, together with the very remarkable series sent home by Dr. Coppinger, of H.M.S. 'Alert.' I am sorry, however, that Prof. Bell has so soon published his system of formulation ; for I cannot but think that a little more experience of the remarkable variations in the group-characters would have caused him to modify it considerably. I had intended to reserve any publication of the method of formulation which has gradually developed itself during my work on the < Challenger,' ' Blake,' and other collections, until the appearance of the 'Challenger' Report. But the numerous errors contained in Prof. Bell's paper require an immediate correction, which would be out of place in the ' Challenger ' volumes. Prof. Bell's method is an ingenious one, especially where he 1 "An Attempt to apply a Method of Formulation to the Species of the C'o-matulidcs; with the Description of anew Species," P. Z. S. 1882, part iii. pp. 530- 536, Pl. XXXV. |