Delphinus. MAMMALIA. CETACEA. 35 



tail, 5 feet. Another individual was 21 4 feet in length ; and a third 20 feet 

 in length, and 114 in circumference. The skin is smooth, resembling oiled 

 silk ; the colour is a deep bluish-black on the back, and generally whitish on the 

 belly ; the blubber is 3 or 4 inches thick. The head is short and round ; the 

 upper jaw projects a little over the lower. Externally it has a single spiracle. 

 The full grown have generally 22 to 24 teeth, f ths to l£th inches in length, 

 in each jaw. Mr Watson observed one with 28 teeth in the upper jaw, and 24 

 in the lower. In the aged animals some of the teeth are deficient : and in the 

 sucklings none are visible. When the mouth is shut, the teeth lock between 

 one another like the teeth of a trap. The tail is about 5 feet broad ; the 

 dorsal fin about 15 inches high, cartilaginous and immoveable," p. 497- Sand- 

 eels have been found in their stomachs. This species is the Grind of the Faroe 

 Isles, and probably the Delphinus globiceps of Cuvier. 



2. Snout produced. Delphinus of Cuvier, vulgo Bot- 

 tle-noses. 



52. D. Delphis. Common Dolphin. — Teeth upwards of 

 forty in each side of the jaws, slender, bent, and pointed. 



2G4. tab. xxvii. f. 1 — Hunter, Phil. 

 — Occasionally found on the British 



This species seldom exceeds 1 1 feet in length. Hunter found five cervical 

 vertebrae, and one common to the neck and back ; seventeen dorsal vertebrae, 

 and thirty-seven caudal ones. Ribs eighteen. Sternum of three bones, and 

 of some length. 



53. D. Turslo. — Teeth, about twenty on each side, with ob- 

 tuse summits. 



Fabricius, Fauna Groen. p. 49. Del. truncatus — Montagu, Wern. Mem. iii. 

 p. 75- tab. iii — Taken 3d July 1814 in Duncannon Pool, near Stoke 

 Gabriel, about five miles up the Kiver Dart. 



British naturalists are indebted to the late George Montagu, Esq. for the 

 few particulars which have been recorded of the only individual ever captured 

 on our shores. It was 12 feet in length, and about 8 in circumference. From 

 the snout to the blow-hole, 144 inches. Summits of the teeth even with the 

 gum. Colour black above, whitish beneath. The skull which came into 

 Montagu's possession, was, including the upper jaw, 204 inches ; the breadth 

 of the jaw across the hinder teeth, is nearly 5 inches ; on each side there are 

 sockets for twenty teeth, besides a long depression behind the posterior socket, 

 for some other purpose. The under jaw is somewhat longer, containing 

 twenty-three sockets on each side, making collectively in both jaws eighty^ 

 six teeth, a number little inferior to what has hitherto been noticed in any 

 cetaceous animal described. The sockets are variable in size without order, 

 shewing that some teeth were double the size of others, and the approxima- 

 tion of the sockets evinces the contiguity of the teeth, so that the teeth of 

 both jaws must have opposed their surface to each other." The truncated 

 appearance of the teeth, and their little elevation above the gum, seem to in- 

 dicate the great age of the individual, and leave some doubt as to the original 

 form of the summit. According to Fabricius, the front is rounded and de- 

 clining, ending in a produced snout. The teeth in both jaws are distant, with 

 obtuse summits, like the Beluga. Above black, belly whitish. In this de- 

 scription of the teeth, Fabricius seems to have contemplated them in position, 

 while Montagu inferred their close connection, from the uncertain appear- 

 ances of their alveoli, circumstances which seem to explain the only difference 

 between the descriptions of the two authors. 



C 2 



