WHALES AND PORPOISES 33 



Delphinus delphis. THE COMMON DOLPHIN 



The Common or True Dolphin and all the members of its 

 genus are distinguished from the other members of the family 

 by their pronounced beak. This is a considerable prolongation 

 of the skull, rendered the more striking by the great accumula- 

 tion of fatty blubber in front of the forehead. In the shape of 

 its skull and jaws the dolphin is more primitive than the other 

 genera of its family, and represents more nearly the original 

 cetacean skull, which in the earlier types of that group was very 

 prolonged. The jaws are sometimes furnished with as many 

 as sixty-five teeth on each side seldom less than forty. The 

 dolphin, therefore, has more teeth than any other mammal. 

 The neck vertebras are less fused, and are more distinctly 

 developed than in the porpoises and killers. The flippers, or 

 front limbs, are rather long and pointed, sometimes almost hook- 

 like in outline. The back fin is well developed, but broad, and 

 not so pointed as in the short-beaked dolphins. The eye in the 

 true dolphins is relatively large (with a white pupil), the ear being 

 represented, as usual, by the tiniest pin-prick. The coloration 

 of this creature is beautiful, and its appearance is somewhat like 

 watered silk. The upper parts, as usual, are black, the flanks are 

 striped in ochre and yellowish-gray, and the belly is white. The 

 lips are bordered with stripes of lead gray. The remarkable 

 striping and spotting are best illustrated by a drawing. 1 The 

 total length of the common dolphin is probably not more than 

 8 ft. The dolphin only produces one young one at a birth. 

 To this the female devotes herself with the greatest tenderness 

 and care. The mammary glands, which are situated near the 

 vent, and of course in the lower part of the body, become very 

 much enlarged and projecting when the young is born, while 



1 This appearance of watered silk sometimes almost takes iridescent hues 

 in the living animal ; but it is scarcely necessary to point out that the dolphin 

 of poetry, which passed through a gamut of exquisite rainbow hues as it died, 

 was not this or any other cetacean, but a large fish (Coryphczna) which is 

 found in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, and which has often been mixed up 

 with the dolphin in heraldry. 



3 



