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Show 260 DR. J. HAAST ON A N E W [May 5, 2. On the Occurrence of a new Species oiEuphysetes (Euphy-setespottsii), a remarkably small Catodont Whale, on the Coast of N e w Zealand. By JULIUS H A A S T , Ph.D., F.R.S., Director of the Canterbury Museum. [Received March 26, 1874.] Amongst the specimens lately added to the collections in the Canterbury Museum, either new to science or at least to N ew Zealand, none is more interesting than that of a remarkably small Catodont Whale, allied to Euphysetes grayii, which was stranded amongst the rocks in Governor's Bay near Ohinitaki, the residence of T. H. Potts, Esq., F.L.S., by whom it was secured and presented to the Canterbury Museum. As far as I am aware, only another species of the genus Euphysetes exists in the Australian Museum, obtained in 1851 in Port Jackson, of which a description was given in Wall's ' History of a New Sperm Whale,' 1851, 8vo, p. 37, t. 2 (skeleton), but which, according to Krefft, was entirely written by the eminent zoologist W . Sharpe MacLeay (see British-Museum ' Catalogue of Seals and Whales,' p. 218 et seq.). The specimen under review was found by some fishermen amongst the rocks on the 17th of August of this year, when it tried in vain to regain the sea, but was easily secured. As Mr. Potts was kind enough to send immediately a telegram from Lyttleton, the taxidermist of the Museum, Mr. F. R. Fuller, was enabled to proceed at once to the spot, by which not only all necessary measurements were secured before the animal was cut into for procuring the oil, but also both skin and skeleton were obtained in perfect order. The animal on examination proved to be a female, apparently full-grown, and had the following dimensions :- ft. in. Total length 7 2 Breadth of tail I 4| Around body behind pectoral fins 4 2^ „ „ behind eye 3 3 „ „ before dorsal fin 3 10 Pectoral fin, length 0 9 breadth 0 3f Colour black, belly greyish white. There is only one single valve covering the blow-holes, the slit being 2 inches long, of which \\ inch lies on the left and \ an inch on the right side of the top of the head. The skin surrounding the valve is raised in a lunate form rather conspicuously on the left side, open posteriorly; the left side of the valve is far more developed and stronger than the right one. The animal, however, was unfortunately too much disfigured on the top of the head by blows or other causes, so that it was impossible to ascertain whether the small |
