52 WILD LIFE IX XK\V ZKAI.AXD. 



of Ziphius dales from tin- year ISIM. when a skull. ' complrtelx- 

 pn rifled in appearance,' was picked up upon the Mediterranean 

 ll of France, and described by the great Cuvier. It was forty 

 years before another specimen was found. In the New Zealand 

 specimen described by von llaast the body was scored by numerou> 

 lacerations. These wounds may have been due to lights annniir the 

 whales themselves; the forwardly situated teeth would be i-apahli- 

 of inflicting such wounds. But it has also been stated that Un- 

 armed suckers of gigantic cuttlefish are responsible for these 

 scratches." 



Kvery one wlio has travelled up and down the coast, and most 

 who have sat by rocks overlooking the open ocean, are familiar 

 with the schools of porpoises which are so common in these southern 

 seas. It is interesting to watch them from the deck of a strainer. 

 and to see how they dash along near the surface of the water with 

 their peculiar gliding movement, curving their bodies as t hex- 

 plunge in and out of the water. They keep a wonderful regularity 

 in their distance from one another, movinir as if by mechanical 

 means with a remarkable rhythmic movement. Bullen i;i v 

 short account of porpoise-hunting in the " Cruise of the Cachalot." 

 He states that these animals have " no skin i.< .. hide tin- blubber 

 en- coating of lard which encases them being covered by a Mark 

 substance as thin as tissue paper. The porpoise-hide of the boot- 

 maker." he adds, " is really leather made from the skin of the 

 liihifja, or 'White Whale,' which is found only in the far north." 

 I cannot say whether this is aceurate or not. for though I have 

 f reijiieiit 1\- seen porpoises at close quarters I have never seen them 

 cut up. Our species < ' i>h<ilnrh i/tir/i HX hit'fnri is usually from 

 T) ft. to 7ft. long: it is quite distinct from the common European 

 species, which, indeed, belongs to a totally different genus. 



The dolphin- l)< 1 /thi n ux t/d/i/iis is perhaps the most familiar 

 of all cetaceans. It is a world-wide species, which is particularly 

 common in the Mediterranean. There it has been observed f] 

 very early days, and a great number of mythical stories have 

 L r ai In-red round it; hence the siories of Arion and oi ' " The 



hapi'mr of the dolphin out of the \\ater ix exemplified in many 

 Mediterranean coins and coats-of-arms ; the heraldic dolphin is 

 represented with an arched bark as in leaping." Many of the 

 animals usually claimed as porpois,^ are really dolphins. 



