CLASS MAMMALIA. 83 



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. In all the individuals 

 examined by myself, the teeth were sharp, and slightly 

 directed inwards and backwards, except one of the males 

 caught at Fingringhoe, which had the truncated teeth, before 

 alluded to as indicative of age. I had the opportunity of 

 examining the stomach of one captured at Harwich. It 

 was nearly empty, but contained some of the ear- 

 bones (otoliths) of the Gadidse. I recognised those of the 

 cod, the haddock, and what appeared to be those of the 

 whiting. 



The species must be easy to kill, as this one was caught by 

 a cod-hook in the lip. Some of the others mentioned above 

 were destroyed by a charge of small shot. 



Delphinus albirostris, Gray. WHITE-BEAKED DOLPHIN. 



As I have elsewhere recorded (ZooL, 1889, p. 382, and 

 Essex Nat., vol. iii., p. 169), a school, consisting of seven, or 

 possibly nine, individuals of this rare cetacean, was seen 

 in the Colne, on the nth of September, 1889, when five 

 of them were captured. Some were shot with rifles, while 

 one was driven aground and killed by a sailor with his 

 pocket-knife. The remarkable white beak and sides attracted 

 the attention of the Colne fishermen ; but I could not learn 

 that any one of them had ever before seen a similarly-marked 

 specimen. I therefore consider this species to be very rare 



on our coast. 



[A view of the Estuary of the Blackwater, as seen 

 from West Mersea, in the neighbourhood of which not 

 a few cetaceans have, from time to time, been driven 

 ashore, appears facing page 90. It is drawn by Major Bale, 

 of Colchester]. 



