TYPICAL DOLPHINS. 



295 



described from an Orkney skull, and does not appear to have 

 been recorded from the English seas, although stated to be not 

 uncommon in the Orkneys. In addition to the typical skull, 

 an adult female was captured in Orkney in 1835 ; while in 

 1858 a school of some twenty head were secured in Scalpa Bay, 

 near Kirkwall. In their work on the "Fauna of Argyll and the 

 Hebrides," Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley state that a 

 Dolphin captured at Ardiishaig has been identified as of the 

 present species. 



THE TYPICAL DOLPHINS. GENUS DELPIHNUS. 

 De^phittuSy Linn., Syst. Nat. ed. 12, p. 108 (1766) 



In common with the members of the next genus, the Typical 

 Dolphins differ from all the foregoing representatives of the 

 Family in having a distinct and more or less elongated beak to 

 the head, generally separat d from the fatty mass in front of 

 the blow-hole by a V-shaped groove. In the skull the length 

 of the beak exceeds that of the hinder portion ; while in the 

 skeleton of the neck only the two first vertebrae are welded 

 together. All of them have a well-developed back-fin, and 

 numerous teeth, and they prey chiefly or entirely on fish. 



From their allies the Typical Dolphins are distinguishel by 

 the long beak of the skull being generally about twice the 

 length of the hinder portion of the same, and carrying from 

 40 to 60 pairs of teeth in each jaw; these teeth being of 

 small size, conical, pointed, placed close to one another, and 

 occupying almost the whole length of the beak. The narro\v 

 and pointed flippers are of moderate length, and tend to 

 assume a hook-like form ; while the number of vertebrae in 

 the back-bone varies from 73 to 75. The genus is represented 

 by several closely-allied species. 



