WHALES AND DOLPHINS. 



genus. It attains the length of about 8 feet 

 or more, and has an arched brow separated 

 by a prominent swelling from the long flat 

 beak. The body is thickset, spindle-shaped, 

 the dorsal fin sickle-shaped and pretty high, 

 the tail fin scarcely lobed, the fore-limbs short 

 and pointed. The very tough skin has an 

 olive-brown shimmer on the back, and is 

 white below. There are at least 100, some- 



times 200, small, conical, and very sharp 

 teeth. 



This dolphin is the animal celebrated by 

 fabulists and depicted by artists, the friend 

 of man, who carries the singer Arion to the 

 shore, renders aid to the shipwrecked, draws 

 the chariot of Galatea, and carries the 

 Tritons and nymphs of the court of Amphi- 

 trite. Unfortunately all these virtues have 



Fig. 133. The Common Dolphin (Dclphinas delphis). page 5. 



disappeared under the critical eye of modern 

 observers, who no doubt recognize in the 

 dolphin an agreeable travelling-companion, 

 who shortens the idle hours of a long sea- 

 voyage by his graceful sporting round the 

 ship, but who, at the same time, is a terribly 

 voracious ravager, who pursues with fury 

 the fastest swimmers among fishes, herrings, 

 mackerel, water-snakes (Pelamides), and 

 flying-fish, darting about after them with the 

 most rapid and abrupt changes in his course, 

 and hastening up to a mortally wounded 

 comrade, not to render him succour, as the 

 ancients said, but to devour him. 



With this species is often confounded 

 another much larger one, which attains a 

 length of from 12 to 16 feet. This is the 

 Bottle-nosed Dolphin (Delphinus tursio], fig. 



134, which has a shorter and more rounded 

 snout, and longer and narrower fore-limbs, 

 and which is of a bluish-black colour above, 

 white underneath. The less numerous teeth 

 are stronger, and get worn away horizontally ; 

 a proof that these dolphins, which advance 

 almost exclusively by constantly turning 

 somersaults, add numerous crustaceans to 

 their mostly fish diet. 



Other dolphins are characterized by their 

 rounded muzzle, which is not drawn out into 

 a snout, and is not longer than the cranial 

 region of the skull. They are distinguished 

 from the former by having fewer teeth, and 

 these thick and conical, and by having the 

 fore-limbs situated pretty high on the sides, 

 while in the former species they are very 

 low. 



