extends to the eastern North Pacific, one genus (Ziphius) having been observed at Kiska Harbor, Alaska, another (Mesoplodon) at Yaquina Bay, Oregon, and the third (Berardius) at St. George Island, Pribilof Group, Alaska, and near Cape Mendocino, California.

On the east and west coasts of the United States the only occurrences of beaked whales known to me are as follows:

EAST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES.

Mesoplodon bidens:

Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. 1867. Skull in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mesoplodon europæus:

Atlantic City, New Jersey. March 28, 1889. Young male. Skeleton, cast, photographs, and viscera in the National Museum.

North Long Branch, New Jersey. July 22, 1905. Adult female. Skull in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mesoplodon densirostris?:

Annisquam, Massachusetts. August, 1898. Young female. Skeleton in the Museum of the Boston Society of Natural History.

Ziphius cavirostris:

Charleston, South Carolina. 1865 (?). Young female. Skeleton in the National Museum. (Type of Z. semijunctus.)

Barnegat City, New Jersey. October 3, 1883. Adult female. Skeleton and cast in the National Museum.

St. Simon Island, Georgia. 1893. Male (?). Known from a photograph; only a few bones preserved.

Newport, Rhode Island. October, 1901. Adult male. Skeleton and photograph in the National Museum.

Hyperoödon ampullatus:

New York Bay, New York. 1822. Female (?). Not known to have been preserved.

North Dennis, Massachusetts. January, 1869. Male. Skeleton in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Newport, Rhode Island. 1869. Female. Skull in Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.

WEST COAST OF THE UNITED STATES.

Mesoplodon stejnegeri:

Yaquina Bay, near Newport, Oregon. February 15 (?), 1904. Adult. Skull in the National Museum.

Ziphius cavirostris:

Kiska Harbor, Alaska. September, 1904. Known only from photographs.

Berardius bairdii:

St. George Island, Pribilof Group, Alaska. June, 1903. Adult female. Skeleton in the National Museum.

St. George Island, Pribilof Group, Alaska. June, 1903. Young male. Skeleton in the National Museum.

Centerville Beach, near Ferndale, California. October, 1904. Adult male. Skeleton in the National Museum.

Alaska or California (?). Skull formerly in museum of the Alaska Commercial Company, San Francisco.

Trinidad, California. January 30, 1905. Not preserved; perhaps not this genus.

St. George Island, Pribilof Group, Alaska. August 21, 1909. Female. Probably not preserved. Reported by Maj. Ezra W. Clark.

DESCRIPTIONS OF SKULLS AND SKELETONS OF ZIPHIOID WHALES.

Genus MESOPLODON Gervais.

Of this genus the National Museum has four specimens; namely, (1) a skull (Cat. No. 21112, U.S.N.M.) obtained at Bering Island, North Pacific Ocean, in 1883, by Dr. L. Stejneger, and made the type of the species M. stejnegeri True; (2) a skull and photographs (Cat. No. 143132, U.S.N.M.) of the same species, from Yaquina Bay, Oregon, obtained in exchange from Mr. J. G. Crawford in 1904; (3) a skeleton, cast, and photographs of a young male (Cat. No. 23346, U.S.N.M.), hitherto supposed to represent M. bidens, caught at Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1889; and (4) a skeleton of an adult (Cat. No. 49880, U.S.N.M.) from the Chatham Islands, New Zealand, representing M. grayi.[1]

In addition to this material, I have had the privilege of examining two skulls belonging to the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, and hitherto supposed to represent M. bidens, and two skeletons belonging to the American Museum of Natural History. Of these last, one is that of an adult and was purchased by the American Museum under the name of M. layardi, but was subsequently recognized to be a new species and was described by Mr. Andrews, under the name of Mesoplodon bowdoini. The other is that of a young individual, and has been labeled M. grayi.

As already noted by Dr. G. M. Allen,[2] only four specimens of Mesoplodon have been recorded hitherto from the Atlantic coast of the United States. These are:

1. An adult, sex unknown, but probably female, 16 feet long, found at Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 1867, and recorded by Prof. L. Agassiz.[3] The skull of this individual is in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

2. A young male, 12½ feet long, captured at Atlantic City, New Jersey, March 28, 1889. The skeleton (Cat. No. 23346, U.S.N.M.) is in the National Museum.

3. A young female, 12 feet 2 inches long, stranded at Annisquam, Massachusetts, August, 1898, and recorded by the late Alpheus Hyatt.[4] The skeleton is in the museum of the Boston Society of Natural History.

4. An adult female, said by fishermen who measured it to have been 22 feet long, entangled in pound nets at North Long Branch, New Jersey, July 22, 1905, and recorded by Dr. Glover M. Allen.[5] The cranium of this individual is preserved in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy. The rostrum and mandible, which were originally obtained, were afterwards destroyed by accident.

I have examined all this material. Writers who have had occasion to mention these four specimens thus far have referred them tacitly to Mesoplodon bidens (Sowerby), but, after a careful study of them, I have ascertained that while the Nantucket specimen belongs to that species, the Atlantic City and Long Branch specimens represent Mesoplodon europæus (Gervais). This is a very interesting discovery, because the latter species has been known hitherto only from a single skull, and its validity has been frequently questioned. The Annisquam specimen, as will be seen later, presents characters which appear to ally it to M. densirostris.

MESOPLODON BIDENS (Sowerby).

Physeter bidens Sowerby, British Miscell., 1804, p. 1; Trans. Linn. Soc. London, vol. 7, 1804, p. 310.

Delphinus sowerbensis Blainville, Nouv. Dict. Hist. Nat., 2d ed., vol. 9, 1817, p. 177.

Delphinus sowerbyi Desmarest, Mammalogie, pt. 2, 1822, p. 521.

The only specimen from the Atlantic coast of the United States which can with certainty be referred to this species is the one from Nantucket mentioned on page 3. Prof. L. Agassiz’s original notice of it is so brief that it is quoted in full below:

Professor Agassiz also brought to the notice of the Society the discovery of a Cetacean, new to America. The skull was exhibited, and its peculiar features pointed out. It was obtained