328 WHALES AND DOLPHINS 



in a recent report on stranded cetacea the writer drew 

 attention to data which indicated an approach of this species 

 to the British coast from the south-west. In the English 

 Channel and southern North Sea the records had a definite 

 relation to the time of year. Strandings were restricted in the 

 early months of the year to Devon, Cornwall and the Scilly 

 Isles ; the first record for Dorset was in July, for Sussex and 

 Kent in August, and for Essex in September. 



The food of the Bottle-nosed Dolphin consists of fishes. One 

 of the specimens stranded on the British coast was reported as 

 having " swallowed a small shark, 4 feet long, head first, the 

 tail remaining in the dolphin's mouth ; this was believed to 

 have been the cause of death." 



The breeding season extends from spring to summer. A 

 female animal accompanied by newly-born calf 3 feet 10 inches 

 long was stranded on the coast of Glamorgan at the beginning 

 of July, 1927. It seems likely that in this species, as in many 

 other dolphins, pregnancy lasts from ten months to a year. 

 The teeth of the young specimen just referred to had not cut 

 the gum, and it may be noted that in all members of the 

 Delphinidae, so far as is known, the young are born in this 

 toothless condition. 



A fishery for the capture of the Bottle-nosed Dolphin was 

 at one time carried on from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. 

 The animals collected in schools which, in the spring, were 

 made up almost equally of males and females, but later in 

 the year the sexes segregated. Nets were used to entrap the 

 animals and, says Lydekker, " some idea of the number of 

 these dolphins frequenting the Carolina seas may be gathered 

 from the fact that between the 15th November 18S4 and the 

 middle of the following May, no less than twelve hundred and 

 sixty-eight of them were caught at Hatteras". 



Closely allied to the Bottle-nosed Dolphin are Tursiops 

 abusalam of the Red Sea, which is dark green dorsally, whitish 

 on the belly with irregularly distributed dark green spots, and 

 adult length upwards of 6 feet ; and Tursiops catalania, of 

 Indian and Australian seas, which is lead-coloured dorsally 

 and white on the under surface, and has its sides, lower 

 surface and flippers covered with blotches of dark lead 

 colour. 



