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Show 218 MR. H. O. EORBES ON THE [Feb. 28, I. An aged skull, without the mandible (probably a male), from Kaiapoi beach, Canterbury, N. Z., labelled, under direction evidently of Sir J. von Haast, as Mesoplodon knoxi, Hector, and by another hand changed into Mesoplodon hectori, Cray. This is the specimen referred to by Sir James Hector, in the ' Transactions' of the N. Zealand Institute, vol. v. page 168, as being in the Canterbury Museum from Kaiapoi " without the lower jaw," which he considered the adult form of his young Mesoplodon Jcnoxi. It appears also, with little doubt, to be the same specimen of which Sir J. von Haast, in volume ix. of the same publication, page 455, makes the following observation, which in the absence of the mandible I am at a loss to understand, as it seems to be and to have been, tbe only specimen from Kaiapoi, or of M. hectori, in the Museam :-" I wish to add that a comparison of these three skulls of Oulodon [A, F, I] with the skull of Mesoplodon hectori, Gray [= M. hnoxi, Hector] in the Canterbury Museum, and which is derived from an aged specimen, shows at a glance the distinct specific character [i. e. teeth at the symphysis of the mandible], besides being much smaller in all its proportions." The Canterbury Museum specimen, as will be seen from fig. 1, Plate XIII., differs from Mesoplodon hectori, Gray, as figured in Sir W . Flower's paper (Tr. Z. S. vol. x. pi. lxxi. fig. 4). J. The skeleton of an adult from Lyall Bay, N. Z., in the British Museum, described and figured by Sir W . Flower, in volume x. of the Society's ' Transactions,' as Mesoplodon australis. It is probably of the male sex. K. A mutilated skull, with its mandible, of an aged male Mesoplodon (Oulodon) grayi, Haast. This is the remaining one of the three Chatham Island crania referred to under specimen A. It is the type specimen of the genus and species, and is the individual figured by Von Haast in the ' Transactions ' of the X. Z. Institute, vol. ix. plate xxvi. fig. 3 (not fig. 1, as erroneously marked on that plate). Along with its two companions (A and F) it had remained in the same condition as found and figured in 1875, enveloped in its integuments, till all three were partly dissected and partly macerated out by m e in July 1890. L. The specimen described and figured by Sir William Flower in the paper so often referred to, under the name of Mesoplodon haasti. This is an old-even aged-individual, nearly of the same age, in m y opinion, as K. It is undoubtedly a male, and is now in the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. With these specimens I have compared the publisted descriptions of Mesoplodon (Oulodon) grayi, Haast, given by Van Beneden and Gervais on plate lxii. of their ' Osteographie.' All the above 13 specimens belong without any doubt to Mesoplodon grayi, Haast; indeed no fewer than six of them were recognized by Sir Julius von Haast as belonging to the species which he had himself established. M . The skeleton of an aged male of Mesoplodon layardi in the Canterbury Museum, N . Z.-labelled M.floweri, Haast. |