DELPHINID.^] 33 



These aquatic animals are active, voracious and usually 

 gregarious. Their food is fish, squid, cuttlefish, etc. A few 

 species are hunted for their oil, but many species yield too small 

 amounts to make their pursuit profitable, particularly as their 

 activity or peculiar habits make their pursuit difficult. 



Subfamily DelphininsB. 



Cervical vertebra; more or less consolidated; pterygoids nor 

 prolonged backward to articulate with the squamosals. 



Genus Lissodelphis Gloger. (Smooth— dolphin.) 



No dorsal fin ; pectoral fin curved ; depression in front of 

 forehead moderate; rostrum long, tapering; teetr 43 to 47, small, 

 sharp. 



Lissodelphis borealis Pkalk. (Northern.) 



NORTHERN RIGHT WHALE PORPOISE. 



Form slender; beak short, distinct; flukes small; lower jaw 

 longer than upper and curved upward at the extremity. 



Length about 2200 mm. (87 inches) ; end of jaw to pec- 

 toral fin 625 (z-^) ; length oi pectoral fin 300 (12) ; breadth of 

 flukes 400 (16). 



North Pacific Ocean. California. Japan. 



"The Right Whale Porpoise of the western coast of North 

 America, in habit and form, is nearly the same as the Right 

 Whale Porpoise of the southern hemisphere (peroni), but it is 

 not so beautifully marked in vivid contrast, in pure white and 

 jet black, as the latter; the former being black above and lighter 

 below, with but little of its lower extremities banded with white. 

 The Right Whale Porpoise is not usually met with in large 

 numbers, and is seldom found in shallow bays or lagoons. We 

 have seen them' as far south as San Diego Bay. on the Californian 

 coast, and as far north as Behring Sea, showing plainly that the 



