PORPOISES. 



115 



iace, which is lighter. They are extremely gregarious, and mild and 

 inoffensive in disposition, feeding on cephalopods. Their eminently 

 sociable disposition constantly leads to their destruction, as, when 

 attacked, they instinctively rush together and blindly follow the 

 leaders of the herd. In this way many hundreds at a time are 

 frequently driven ashore and killed, when a herd enters one of the 

 bays or fiords of the Faroe or Shetland Islands. They are widely 

 distributed. Specimens in the collection from New Zealand are 

 indistinguishable from those taken in the Northern seas. 



Fig. 54. 



Porpoise (Phoccena communis). 

 Fig. 55. 



Skull of Porpoise. 



Phocana. P. communis, the common Porpoise, is the best known 

 and most frequent Cetacean on our coasts. It and its immediate 

 allies differ from all the other Delphinida in the form of their 

 teeth, which, instead of being conical and pointed, have compressed 

 spade-shaped crowns. Its external form is well seen in the 

 coloured model of an American specimen, A closely- allied form, 

 Neomeris phocanoides, differing mainly in the absence of dorsal 

 fin, is common off the coast of Bombay, and has been met with 

 in other parts of the Indian Ocean arid near Japan. A specimen 



