78 FABULOUS HISTORY 



the boy dying, the afflicted animal came frequently 

 to the accustomed place, remained there sorrowful 

 and wretched, and finally died of grief!* 



The reasons for believing the present species to be 

 the dolphin of the poets, are the following: first, it 

 is the only dolphin which is known habitually to fre- 

 quent the coasts, or to visit the deep bays which 

 extend far inland. The sea-swine (meerschwein, 

 marsouin, Delphinus Phoccena,) have no beak ex- 

 tending beyond the arched part of the head, and as 

 they are seldom seen except in the fall sea, are not 

 likely to have afforded much opportunity to the an- 

 cients for examination. That they were well ac- 

 quainted with our dolphin, we have the most ex- 

 cellent evidence, in the figure of the one which 

 accompanies the statue of the Venus de Medicis. 

 Although the usual poetical licence has been taken 

 by the sculptor, of placing the animal resting 

 on the underjaw and neck, with its body and tail 

 raised in fanciful undulations, from the great re- 

 semblance of the head and beak to those of the dol- 

 phin we have been examining, in conjunction with 

 the circumstances of its habits, numbers and fami- 

 liarity with the bays and rivers of almost all the 

 world, we are persuaded of the identity of the spe- 

 cies frequenting our waters, with that to which all 

 the ancient fables relate. 



* See Pliny, lib. ix, cap. viii. 



