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Show 1902.] OF THE SHORT-XOSEI) SPERM-WHALE. 55 and are thus preserved in a natural condition. There is one bone upon which some doubt must still be expressed, viz. the pelvis. Wall(l) describes and figures this structure as consisting of two pairs of more or less circular or oval plate-like bones, which he arranges in a transverse row-an inner smaller and an outer larger bone on each side ; the bones are very unlike the pelvic bones of other Odontocetes, and as they were found in the sand, it is within the bounds of possibility that the identification is incorrect. I searched the Parakanui carcase carefully for the pelvis : I removed the penis and found no bone in connection with it, and I feel quite certain that no bone existed, for the maceration was most carefully carried out, and the contents of the macerating-tube were sifted, so that even the cartilaginous epiphyses of the larger libs were recovered ; if there had been bones of the size and shape described by Wall, they could not have been overlooked. The Axial Skeleton. The total length of the dried skeleton, when the bones were laid out, in contact, is 2-39 metres (i. e. 7 ft. II1 inches), of which the skull measures 0-39 m. (15£ inches) and the vertebral column 2-00 m. (6 ft. 8 inches). These measurements do not aUow for the intervertebral discs. I have not deemed it necessary to give an account of the skull, as it has been adequately described and figured by Owen (2), and more recently by Beneden & Gervais (5). There is, however, one point to which I will refer, as it seems to have escaped the notice of previous authors. At the tip of each premaxilla is a short triangular calcification- apparently not bone, but calcified cartilage, for it differs considerably from bone, both in colour and texture (PI. II. fig. 1, X). Each of these "sclerites," or premaxillary nodules as they may be termed, is grooved along its lower surface, and in this groove lay the base of the single tooth of the upper jaw. This groove is in line with that on the maxillary bone, which is continued backwards as a canal, to join the infra-orbital canal. The premaxiUary nodule is not indicated in Owen's figure, in which the upper tooth is placed in the anterior end of the maxillary groove, and not on the premaxilla at all. I have not seen the figure given in V a n Beneden & Gervais's work, but no mention of the nodule occurs in the text: indeed, these'authors express some doubt as to the existence of the upper teeth (p. 349). In a second skull in the Dunedin Museum, belonging to an older specimen, obtained from Napier, in the North Island, this premaxillary nodule does not exist; nor is there any sign that it has fused with the premaxillary bone, for the form of the latter and its relations to the maxilla are precisely the same as in the Parakanui skull, if the nodule be removed. N o doubt this nodule remains separable from the bone, and hence the absence of the upper teeth in most of the skulls of Cogia. |