THE BRITISH MAMMALS : THEIR GENERA AND SPECIES. 69 



Forehead rounded ; beak 

 gently tapering; lower jaw 



Tursiops. Plate xxvi. GET ACE A. 



72. tutsio, BOTTLE-NOSE DOLPHIN. 



broad, depressed, and 

 longer than upper. 



This rare visitor to our British estuaries is fairly common in the 

 Western Atlantic. In colour it is generally dark bluish grey 

 above, shading into white below, but seems to vary down to black 

 with a white abdominal streak. The head is large and rounded, the 

 whitish beak projecting from it with hardly any interruption of the 

 curve. The beak is rather more than half as long as the skull. 

 The gape is curved, and the lower jaw is the longer. There 



BOTTLE-NOSE DOLPHIN. 

 (Tursiofs tursio.) 



are twenty-two or twenty-three pairs of teeth, and the palate is not 

 grooved. The eye is large and the eyelids very mobile. The dorsal 

 fin is broad and high, and the flippers long and falcate. The length 

 is twelve feet or less. There are sixty-four or sixty-five vertebras 

 and twelve or thirteen ribs, of which five are double-headed. In 

 spring all ages and sexes are found together, but later on they 

 sort themselves out, and some of the shoals have been found to 

 consist entirely of old males. 



Vespertilio. Plate iii. CHIROPTERA. 

 Feet long 



10. dasycneme, ROUGH-LEGGED BAT. 



ears shorter than head. 



Earlet not pointed but rounded ; 



11. daubentoni, 



Feet short 



12. natter eri, 



13. bechstein.i, 



DAUBENTON'S BAT. 

 head. 



Earlet pointed ; ears as long as 



REDDISH-GREY BAT. Earlet curving outwards ; 

 membrane between legs fringed with long hairs. 



BECHSTEIN'S BAT. Earlet curving outwards ; mem- 

 brane between legs without hairs. 



