Class IV. D O L ? H I N. 67 



the red of the cetaceous tribe. We know that 

 at prefent the appearance of this fifh, and the 

 porpefte, are far from being efteemed favorable 

 omens by the feamen ; for their boundings, fprings 

 and frolics in the water, are held to be fure figns 

 of an approaching gale. 



It is from their leaps out of that element that 

 they aflame a temporary form that is not natural 

 to them, but which the old painters and fculp- 

 tors have almoft always given them. A dolphin 

 is fcarce ever exhibited by the antients in a ftrait 

 iliape, but almoft always incurvated : fuch are 

 thofe on the coin of Alexander the Greats which 

 is preferved by Belon, as well as on feveral other 

 pieces of antiquity. The poets defcribe them 

 much in the fame manner, and it is not impro- 

 bable but that the one had borrowed from the 

 other : 



Tumidumque pando tranfilit dorfo mare 

 Tyrrhenus omni pifcis exfultat freto, 

 Agitatque gyros. 



Senec. Frag. Again. 450. 



Upon the fvvelling waves the dolphins fhew 

 Their bending backs, then fwiftly darting go, 

 And in a thoufand wreaths their bodies throw. 



The natural fhape of the dolphin is almoft ftrait, De*cm», 

 the back being very (lightly incurvated, and the 

 body flender : the nofe is long, narrow, and point- 

 F 2 ed 



