List of the Fauna of the Countij. 179 



cetacean on any part of our Essex coast; but I feel certain 

 that it ought to be in our list. Perhaps someone with better 

 opportunities than myself will be able to give an instance of 

 its capture. 



D. TURsio. Bottle-nosed Dolphin. — This generally reputed 

 rare animal has occurred twice within my own observation. 

 One occurred a few years since off Harwich, the specimen 

 being about 10 feet long ; and the other was shot in the 

 Colne a few months since, as I recorded in the ' Zoologist' 

 for 1882, p. 147. This specimen, like the last, was a female, 

 and was about 8 feet long. In 1829 one was taken in the 

 Thames below the Nore, and its skeleton is in the museum of 

 the College of Surgeons. In most of the drawings of the skull 

 of this animal the teeth are represented as truncated ; this is 

 no doubt the result of wear, and is incidental to age ; but in 

 both those individuals examined by me the teeth were sharp, 

 and slighly directed inwards and backwards. The stomachs, 

 in both cases, were empty, except that they contained a large 

 number of the ear-bones (otoliths) of the Gadida3 : I recog- 

 nised those of cod, haddock, and whiting. I fancy this is one 

 of the most easy to kill of the family ; I have known one 

 caught by a cod-hook m the lip and killed ; and the one in 

 the Colne succumbed to a charge of small shot. 



From the above list it will be seen that I claim for Essex 

 a total ^ forty mammals, besides the three doubtful ones, — 

 the common marten [Mustela foina), grey seal {HaUchcerus 

 gryphus), and red deer {Cervus elej^has). There are probably 

 some other members of the order Cetacea which ought to be 

 included in this Catalogue. 



Those I have mentioned belong to the following orders : — 

 Cheiroptera . . . . 7 species. 



Insectivora 

 Carnivora . 

 rodentia 

 ruminantia 



Cetacea 



5 



8 



12 



1 



1 



40 



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