150 LECTURE IV. 



pear indeed to have been guilty of some aggrava- 

 tion in this respect in their poetical and sculptorial 

 representations, while the moderns, on the con- 

 trary, have been somewhat too severe in con- 

 demning them. 



The Porpoise or D. Phocana, is a still more 

 common species than the Dolphin, and so ex- 

 tremely similar to it, that there can be little doubt 

 of its having been often confounded with it : it is 

 however a smaller animal, and rarely exceeds the 

 length of six or seven feet: its chief mark of dis- 

 tinction from the Dolphin seems to consist in having 

 a shorter and blunter snout. The Porpoise, being 

 the most common European species of all the 

 Cetaceous tribe, has, of course, been more ac- 

 curately inspected, as to its anatomical structure, 

 than any of the rest; Rondeletius, Ray, Tyson, and 

 others, having given a good general anatomy of 

 the animal. It is also a curious fact, (such is the 

 revolution of taste), that the Porpoise was a few 

 centuries ago considered as a splendid and elegant 

 dish at royal and noble tables ; and this in Eng- 

 land even so late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 



By far the largest of the Dolphin genus is the 

 species called the Grampus, the D. Orca of Lin- 



