

SHORT-r.EAKED DOLPHIN. 293 



genus forms a kind of connecting-link between the preceding 

 and following genera. 



I. THE WHITE-BEAKED DOLPHIN. LAGENORHYNCHUS 

 ALBIROSTRIS. 



Delphinus alhirosiris, Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xvii. p. 

 84 (1846); Bell, British Quadrupeds, 2nd ed. p. 472 

 (^874). 



Lagenorhynchus albirosiris, Gray, Zool. Voy. Erebus and Ter- 

 ror, P- 35 (1846); Southwell, British Seals and Whales, 

 p. 125 (1881); Flower, List Cetacea Brit. Mus. p. 22 

 (1885). 



Characters. — Colour of upper-parts deep purplish-black, cf the 

 beak, lips, and under-parts pure creamy white; the two colours 

 being sharply defined. Length of adult from 7 to 9 feet. 



Distribution. — This Dolphin is a rare species inhabiting the 

 North Atlantic, and was first recorded as British in 1846 by 

 Brightwell, who wrongly identified a specimen captured in that 

 year off Yarmouth, in Norfolk, with Tiirsiops tursio. It 

 appears, however, that a Dolphin killed at Hartlepool in 1834, 

 of which the skull is in the Zoological Museum at Cambridge, 

 likewise belongs to the present species. The next recorded 

 occurrence is in 1866, in which year a specimen was shot near 

 Cromer ; while a fourth was taken at the mouth of the River 

 Dee in December, 1862; and a fifth on the south coast in 

 187 1. A young female was captured off Grimsby in Sep- 

 tember, 1875 ; a male in March of the following year off 

 Lowestoft; while both in 1879 and 1880 a young female was 

 captured at Yarmouth. In the Zoologist for 1881, p. 41, 

 Mr. J. M. Campbell records a young male caught by a fislier- 

 man on September 11, 1880, near the Bell Rock, on thj west 

 coast of Scotland. This specimen, which measured 5 ft. 8 in. 

 in length, is the first recorded example from the Scottish 



