n 



100 D?. Clark on the Capture of a Bottle-nosed Dolphin. 



Fig. 5. Ditto, showing a small proteus attached to the side of a transparent 



cavity in ditto. 

 Fig. 6. Ditto, in the act of surrounding a foreign body. 

 Fig. 7. Most striking forms assumed by proteans, developed from the matter 



of the seed-like bodies (seen at various times), magnified. 



Plate V. 



Fig. 1. Remarkable forms assumed by proteans, developed from the matter 



of the seed-like bodies, magnified. 

 Fig. 2. General form of large spiculum, ditto. 

 Fig. 3. Magnified view of spiniferous spiculum. 



X. — Notice of a Bottle-nosed Dolphin (Delphinus Tursio, Fabr.) 

 upon the Suffolk coast. By W. B. Clarke, M.D. 



A SPECIMEN of this Dolphin has been sent to the Ipswich Mu- 

 seum within a few days ; it was discovered upon the beach at 

 Bawdsey, which is a village about fourteen miles from Ipswich. 

 The animal was stranded on the shore and left by the retiring 

 tide. There are many regular transverse marks across the anterior 

 edge of the dorsal fin, and across the back posterior to that fin : 

 there was also a deep wound in the underside of its throat, a little 

 anterior to the sternal region, apparently inflicted by a lance, and 

 also various marks upon several parts of the body, as if produced 

 by the blunt hook and point of a " boat-hook." By these I am 

 induced to suppose that the creature was entangled at sea, in the 

 net of some fishing vessel, the crew of which, upon finding it 

 there, exerted their best means of despatching it, and afterwards 

 turned it adrift. 



Prof. Bell remarks (in his History of Brit. Quad, including the 

 Cetacea), " Considerable ambiguity appears to have rested upon 

 this rare species of northern Dolphin, which has been gradually 

 removed by Desmarest, G. Cuvier, and particularly by F. Cuvier, 

 in his admirable book already quoted (Fr. Cuv. Hist. Nat. Cet. 

 p. 141)." It now appears certain that the '' Nisarnak " of Fa- 

 bricius and of Bonnaterre, and the first of the two Bottle-nosed 

 Whales figured by Hunter, are identical with the Delphinus 

 Tursio. Desmarest and G. Cuvier had at first considered them 

 distinct, but the latter distinguished naturalist afterwards cor- 

 rected the error, and his brother has subsequently fully esta- 

 blished their identity. 



The first account which we have of its appearance on our 

 shores is that of J. Hunter, in which he considers it as the com- 

 mon Dolphin, Delphinus Delphis. The specimen figured (Hun- 

 ter, Phil. Trans. 1787, p. 373. t. 18) was caught, says Hunter, 

 upon the sea-coast near Berkeley, where it had been seen for 

 several days following its mother, and was taken along with the 

 old one : the latter was 1 1 feet long. 



