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Show 1893.] CETACEAN GENUS MESOPLODON. 217 which the first appearance of change in the mesorostral groove visible. B. A damaged cranium, without its mandible, received from the Chatham Islands, and now exhibited; of unknown sex, and of a more advanced age than A. The vomerine trough is still empty aud perfectly smooth. It would appear to be about the same age, being apparently about the same stage of development, as Mesoplodon grayi, Haast, figured by Van Beneden and Grervais in their ' Osteographie des Cetaces.' C. A skeleton in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons - that described and figured by Sir W . Flower as M. grayi, Haast, in his paper already cited. This is the second of the two Salt Water Creek skeletons prepared by Sir J. von Haast, and determined by hiin to be Oulodon grayi. Its sex is doubtful; but it is still quite young, as the interior of the vomerine spout (so far as unconcealed by the rostral integument on the anterior part of the snout and of the dried cartilage in the canal) is still smooth and free from ossification. D. The rostrum of a specimen obtained for me from the Chatham Islands, and now exhibited. I have no doubt it belongs to the species Mesoplodon grayi, Haast. Its sex is unknown, but its age is somewhat greater than any of those already mentioned. The vomerine trough is partially filled with osseous tissue. E. The rostrum of a third specimen from the Chatham Islands, and now on the table, of unknown sex and of a still more advanced age, but still immature. This specimen, along with B, D, and Gr, will be presented to the British Museum. F. A skull, with its mandible, of an immature (according to Haast, female) specimen of Mesoplodon (Oulodon) grayi, Haast. This is tbe second of the three skulls described by him in the ninth volume of the ' Transactions' of the N e w Zealand Institute from the Chatham Islands, and now in the Otago Museum, Dunedin, N . Z. It is also a co-type of the genus and species Oulodon grayi. G. The rostrum of a cranium obtained for m e from the Chatham Islands. It is still immature, as the mesorostral furrow, though nearly full of ossified tissue, is not yet quite filled up, and the whole of the bones are still spongy. It belongs undoubtedly to the species gragi, Haast, of this genus. H. A complete female skeleton of Mesoplodon (Oulodon) grayi, Haast, one of four individuals that in December 1876 ran on the beach near Salt Water Creek, north of Banks Peninsula, N. Z. It was identified and described as the co-type of Oulodon grayi by Sir J. von Haast. Of these four specimens two skeletons were prepared-one (C) being sent to the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and tbe present specimen retained in the Canterbury Museum, where it is now. Though described by Sir J. von Haast as " a full-grown animal," it still bears marks of immaturity in its incompletely filled-up vomerine spout and in the rostral bones exhibiting none of that petrosal density so characteristic of fully adult Mesoplodonta. |