206 MAMMALIA. 



which the head bears the usual proportion to the body, and 

 those in which it is immoderately large. The first compre- 

 hends the Dolphins and the Narwhals. 



Delphinus, Lin. 



The Dolphins have teeth in both jaws, all simple, and almost always 

 conical. They are the most carnivorous, and, in proportion to their 

 size, the most cruel of their order. There is no C3ecum.(l) 



Delphinus, Cuv. 



The Dolphins, properly so called, have a convex forehead, and the 

 muzzle forming a kind of rostrum, or snout, in front of the head, 

 more slender than the rest. 



D. delpJiis, L. ; Lacep. Get. pi. xiii, f. 1. (The Common Dol- 

 phin.) The snout depressed and armed on each side of the jaw 

 with from forty-two to forty-seven teeth, slender, arcuate, and 

 pointed; black above, white beneath; from eight to ten feet in 

 length. This animal, found in numerous bodies in every sea, 

 and celebrated for the velocity of its motion, which sometimes 

 precipitates it on the decks of vessels, appears really to have 

 been the Dolphin of the ancients. The entire organization of the 

 brain seems to indicate the docility they attributed to it. 



D. tursio, Bonnaterre ; vulg. le Souffleur; Lacep. XV, f. 2. 

 (The Great Dolphin.) Snout short, broad and depressed; from 

 twenty-one to twenty-four teeth throughout, conical, and often 

 blunted. Individuals have been seen fifteen feet in length, and 

 it appears that they are found in the Mediterranean as well as 

 in the Ocean. (2) 



D. dubius, Cuv. Only thirty-six or tiiirty-seven teeth through- 

 out, but as fine and pointed as those of the Common Dolphin, 

 which it also resembles in its colours. 



D. frontalis, Duss. Very similar to the preceding, but colour- 

 ed somewhat differently, and has thirty-four teeth throughout. 

 Discovered by M. Dussumier, at the Cape de Verd Islands. 



D. frontatus, Cuv. But twenty-one teeth throughout, larger 



(1) There is no family of the Mammalia more difficult to observe, of which 

 we have more imperfect descriptions, and whose synonymes are more fluctuating' 

 than that of the Cetacea. I have endeavored to select authentic species. 



(2) The Whale or Capidolio of Belon, and the Orca, of the same author, which 

 very probably is that of the ancients, belong" also to the division of Dolphins 

 with snouts, and are much larger than the above mentioned species; but their cha- 

 racters are not sufficiently determined. The Daupkin feres of Bonnaterre is pi'o- 

 bably referable to one of the two. 



