OBSERVATIONS ON THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE BOTTLENOSE 

 PORPOISE. 



BY 



Frederick W. True, 



Curator of the Department of Mammals. 



In the spring of 1886 I was requested by Professor Baird to investi- 

 gate and report upon the porpoise fishery carried on at Hatteras, North 

 Carolina. Some account of the fishery, in its industrial aspects, has 

 already been published in the Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission,* 

 I now desire to supplement that account by recording some observations 

 which I made regarding the habits and structure of the porpoises 

 themselves. 



I reached the station in the middle of May and found that the fish- 

 ing season was nearly at its close. Nevertheless active operations were 

 still in progress, and several large hauls were made during my stay, I 

 was hospitably entertained by Colonel Wainwright, who was in charge 

 of the fif^hery, and from him as well as from the fishermen I gathered 

 many interesting facts. 



The species captured at Hatteras is Tursiops ttirsio (Bonnaterre). 

 To the fishermen it is known simply as the porpoise.t The species is 

 common along the entire Atlantic coast of the United States from Maine 

 to Florida, and along the Gulf coast at least as far as Texas. It enters 

 the Chesapeake Bay, and I have been informed that it occasionally 

 ascends the Potomac Eiver as far as Glymont, a fishing station on the 

 Maryland shore, about 18 miles below Washington. I have never seen 

 it myself, however, beyond Fortress Monroe, at the entrance of the bay. 



For several days after my arrival at Hatteras no porpoises were taken 

 and I began to fear that the season was closed. On the 14th of May, 

 however, a school approached from the south, and the nets being cast, 

 forty porpoises were taken. Of these twenty-six were males and 

 fourteen females. The majority were full grown individuals, and the 

 smallest in the school had well-developed teeth. The largest individ- 

 ual measured 9 feet 10 inches in a straight line, and the smallest, 6 feet 

 7 inches. 



* Vol. V, p, 3. 



tProf. Van Beuedeu, ia his receut work on the Natural History of the Dolphins of 

 Europe, states that the Euglisli call this species the " Bottlenose whale." This is, I 

 believe, eiroueous. The name Bottlenose whale is applied to Hyperoodon. (Hist. Nat. 

 Delphinides des mers d'Eiirope, 1889, p. 178. Extr. Mem. Courou. de I'Acad. roy. 

 de Belgique, XLUi.) 



Proceedinsrs National Museum, Vol. XIII — No. 812. 



197 



