lY.-ON A SPOTTED DOLPHIN APPARENTLY IDENTICAL WITH 

 THE PRODELPHINUS DORIS OF GRAY. 



By Frederick W. True. 



Upon the return of the U. S. Fish Commissiou steamer Albatross 

 from an expedition to the island of Cozumel, in the spring of the pres- 

 ent year, the naturalists attached to the vessel informed me that 

 while in the Gulf of Mexico they fell in with a large school of dolphins 

 of very peculiar appearance, the back being covered with white spots. 

 The descriptions of the animal aroused my curiosity, and at my sug- 

 gestion Professor Baird, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, im- 

 mediately offered a reward for the capture of oue or more individuals 

 of the species. Messrs. Warren and Stearns, fish dealers of Pensacola, 

 Fla., very kindly offered to direct the attention of the fishermen to 

 the matter, and so efficient were their services that on the 3d of June, 

 only a few weeks after the presence of the species in the Gulf was first 

 made known, we received by steamer an adult male in perfect preserva- 

 tion. 



Judging from the remarks of the naturalists of the Albatross, and 

 the fact that a specimen was so quickly secured by the Pensacola fisher- 

 men, it would appear that the species is abundant in the Gulf. Further- 

 more, upon the return of the Albatross from a cruise on the Hatteras 

 ground, only a few days after the Pensacola specimen was received, I 

 was informed that great schools of a spotted dolphin, apparently iden- 

 tical with the latter, were seen in that locality. Two individuals, in 

 fact, were harpooned, but broke away and sunk before they could be 

 hauled up to the deck of the steamer. 



The Pensacola dolphin was certainly the most beautiful cetacean I 

 have ever examined. The outlines of the body were very graceful, and 

 the gray tints of the sides and the spots on the lower surfaces exqui- 

 sitely delicate. Upon the fiist superficial examination I was convinced 

 that I had before me a representative of the genus Prodclphinus, but to 

 reach a conclusion concerning the species was a far more difiicult mat- 

 ter. In the title of this essay I have adopted the name of P. doris 



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