To save any further speculation or investigation, I'll come clean. I have only ever seen the Pearson (E=3) kurtosis statistic. I am obliged to Dave Nichols for increasing my education, and will now consult the Kendall and Stewart that sits on my bookshelf. The following intriguing comment by Gary Tietjen ("A Topical Dictionary of Statistics") may be of wider interest: "It was formerly thought that [Pearson] kurtosis measured 'peakedness', but it probably has more to do with tail behaviour."

R. Allan Reese Email: r.a.reese@gri.hull.ac.uk Associate Manager Direct voice: +44 1482 466845 Graduate Research Institute Voice messages: +44 1482 466844 Hull University, Hull HU6 7RX, UK. Fax: +44 1482 466846 ==================================================================== Hull Univ - moving up in the First Division. Daily Telegraph 4/8/99