54 BULLETI.Nf :;^ UMTKD STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



1>. clelphis and ]>. Bairdii, and nmsl, tlierefore, regard tlie latter as iden- 

 tical with the former, 



Belphimis Moorei and 1). Walkcri, Gray. 



These two species are founded on two drawings and two skeletons 

 now in tlic Liverpool Public Museum. Both species are from a point in 

 the South Atlantic, in the vicinity of Tristan da Cunha. I examined 

 the types and original drawings, and verified from the manuscript the 

 measurements given by Gray.* The colors of D. Moorei in the original, 

 somewhat crude sketch, are, beginning from below, as foUows : Light 

 pure slate-gray; darker greenish slate gray; black. Tlie colors of />. 

 Walkeri nre: Dirty white; light pure slate-gray ; dark pure slate gray ; 

 black. The skulls are, as Gray has said, "so similar that it is not easy 

 to point out any difference in words." They appeared to me identical 

 with those of D. delphis. The skeletons I was unable to examine in 

 detail, but they are certainly not notably different from those of i). del- 

 phis. 



The colors of these two individuals, as represented in the sketches, 

 are clearly far from identical. Xor are they exactly like those of any 

 figure of 1). delpMs which I have examined. Gray brings up an im- 

 portant issue when he says : 



Considering that the coloring of the animals shows that thej' represent two species, 

 one is struck with the very small difterencc exhibited in tlie sknll by species showing 

 snch marked external differences, and can only conclude by tliinking how hiisty we 

 have been when wo have referred skulls received from very distant parts of the world 

 all to Delpliinus delphis, etc.t 



This is quite the couverse of Fischer's opinion, namely : 



Je peuse que le dauphin vnlgaire, qui semblo habiter prcsque toutos les niers du 

 globe, prdsente d'ianombrables races ou vari«^tds. 



But what are the facts in the case under consideration ? On the one 

 hand we have two crude sketches of dolphins (not the dolphins them- 

 selves, it should be remembered), similar to each other and to /). delphis, 

 but not absolutely alike. Ou the other hand we have the two skulls of 

 the same individuals exactly resembling each other and D. deJphis. Do 

 they represent distinct species or otherwise? Gray decides by the 

 differences of color in the sketches an<l affirms that they are distinct, 

 while he admits that the skulls are alike. Prof. Fischer, on the other 

 hand, would probably hold that, the skulls being alike, the differences in 

 color must be regarded partly as mistakes of the artist and partly as 

 real variations by which the different social families of 7). delphis are 

 distinguished from one another. 



There is one fact not taken into account by Gray which leads one to 

 believe that the latter opinion is correct, namely, that the proportions of 



*Liitken (Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Skr., &<" Rack., 1889), states that these sketclies 

 were not made by Walker, but by Capt. Andrea, 

 t Cat. Seals and Wiiales, p. 398. 



