436 Mr. J. Couch on the species of Wliales 



. containing a foetus. Of another, the remains of which came on 

 shore in Mount^s Bay, I had an opportunity of examining the 

 jaw-bone, which cannot be mistaken for that of any other of the 

 British species. The decay had advanced so far, that the two 

 sides had separated at the symphysis, and the teeth had dropped 

 out. It was 17 inches long, with nine sockets for teeth, rather 

 closely placed together, and occupying about one- third of the 

 space of the jaw ; and five openings for blood-vessels or nerves, 

 at increasing distances from each other backward. The line of 

 insertion of the teeth was singularly deflected. 



Pliny the naturalist, B. 9. c. 6, gives a remarkable instance of 

 the gladiatorial habits of this species, and something not much 

 unlike it took place in the autumn and spring of 1855-56, as 

 reported to me by several persons who were witnesses to it. The 

 visits of this animal in Plymouth Sound were continued at 

 intervals for the space of about six months ; it was very active, 

 and attracted much notice by the boldness, not to say fierceness 

 of its conduct. It on one occasion laid hold of a boat^s hawser 

 with its mouth, and, as the rope happened to be unfastened, it 

 carried it entirely away. It seized the blade of an oar a man 

 w^as sculling with; went in among the boats and vessels in 

 Plymouth Pool without fear, so that some of the men who had 

 occasion to go on the water in small boats became afraid of it. 

 It not unfrequently leaped out of the water, and on one occasion 

 was seen to lay its head on a buoy in the harbour, and appeared 

 to rub its face against it. To an observer it seemed to be 

 about 12 feet long, very thick and solid in the body, with a 

 blunt head ; the dorsal fin not sufficiently high to be conspicuous ; 

 the colour dark. Attempts were made to shoot and catch it, 

 but in vain. 



Sniffer, or common Porpoise. — D. Fhocmnay Linn., Fleming's 

 Brit. An. p. 33. Ph. communis, Bell's Brit. Quad. p. 473 ; 

 Gray's Catalogue of Brit. Mus. p. 81. 



The most common, although perhaps not the most abundant 

 of our cetaceous animals ; usually keeping in pairs. The name 

 of Sniffer is bestowed on it by fishermen, from the sound it 

 utters as it rolls itself up to the surface, to expel its breath and 

 take in a new supply of air. A description of the skeleton of 

 this animal is contained in the Report of the Royal Cornwall 

 Polytechnic Society for 1852. 



White specimens of some one or other of the cetaceous ani- 

 mals are not uncommon, and mottled individuals are still more 

 frequently seen. Fishermen frequently report them to me; and 

 on one occasion three individuals, which were supposed to be 



