178 Professor Traill on some of' the Cetacea. 



specting these points, particularly in one genus of cetaceous ani- 

 mals, the Delphinus. Aristotle had remarked the striking af- 

 finity of the Cetacea to the Mammalia inhabiting the land ; and 

 states, " that young dolphins are nourished by the milk of their 

 mothers as they swim in company with them." Pliny is more 

 express when speaking of the same genus : " Nutriunt uberi- 

 bus, sicut Bcdeena!" " Quin et adultos diu comitantur ; mag- 

 num erga partum charitate."^ 



The fact of whales possessing teats is so well known to our 

 Greenland sailors, that I never heard it doubted by any of them 

 whom I have examined on the subject ; and I have repeatedly 

 heard them describe the milk which flows from the udder of the 

 female whale when it is pressed. Mr Scoresby, one of our most 

 accurate observers, thus describes the lactiferous system of the 

 great whale, Balcena mysticetus : " Two paps in the female af- 

 ford the means of rearing its young. They are situated on the 

 abdomen, on each side of the pudendum, and are two feet apart. 

 They appear not to be capable of protrusion beyond a few inches* 

 In the dead animal they are always found protruded. 



" The milk of the whale resembles that of quadrupeds in its 

 appearance. It is said to be rich and well flavoured." (Arctic 

 Regions, i.) 



I have had opportunities of examining several species of Del- 

 phinus, and can positively assert that the females have mammae, 

 which are furnished with teats or nipples^ and which secrete 

 milk. 



It is known to some of my friends, that, in 1809, I de- 

 scribed, chiefly from the drawings and notes of the late Mr 

 James Watson of Orkney, a new species of dolphin^ to which 

 I gave the name of Melas from its glossy blackness; but 

 for which I afterwards proposed the trivial name of Deductor, 

 from its gregarious disposition and propensity to follow a leader. 

 The first description was published in the 22d volume of Nichol- 

 sorCs Journal; the second in Scoreshy's Arctic Regions. In 

 both, the fact of the young being nourished by sucking the 

 dams is noticed, but shortly, because it was considered as too well 

 established to admit of any doubt ; but I am enabled, from Mr 

 Watson's notes, now in my possession, to state more fully this 

 fact, as witnessed by him in the herd of 92 individuals of that 



