56 CETACEANS. 



blackfish, but the front of the head is less completely globe-like, and the length of the 

 flippers somewhat less. The mouth is obliquely placed, and the lower jaw shorter 

 than the upper ; while the back-fin is high and pointed. The flukes are very narrow. 

 The general colour is slaty grey, mottled, and very irregularly streaked. As a rule, 

 the back, with its fin, and the flukes are dark grey or blackish, more or less tinged 

 with purple ; while the flippers are blackish, mottled with grey. The head and 

 fore-half of the body are light grey, of varying tint, and more or less tinged with 

 yellow ; the under-parts are greyish white ; and the whole body is marked with a 

 number of irregular and unsymmetrically arranged light striae In the young the 

 colour is dark grey above, and greyish white below, with the head yellowish white; 

 and the flukes marked with five or more narrow and nearly vertical lines, placed 

 at almost equal distances from one another. In length the animal measures about 

 13 feet when full grown. 



Bisso's dolphin appears to have an almost world- wide distribution, 

 Distribution. , , . . . . . , , T , , -, -i i r> 



although not occurring in the polar seas. It has been recorded from 



EISSO'S DOLPHIN. 



(From True, Bulletin of the U.S. National Museum, 1889.) 



the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans, the North Sea, the Mediterranean, 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and Japan. Several examples have been taken on the 

 British coasts. One of these was killed at Puckaster, Isle of Wight, in 1843 ; 

 while a second was captured in a mackerel-net near the Eddystone Lighthouse in 

 1870. A third specimen sold in Billingsgate market in the latter year was probably 

 taken in the Channel ; and a fourth, also caught in the Channel, near Chichester, 

 was kept alive for a day in the Brighton Aquarium in 1875. The fifth example 

 was caught in 1886 in the same manner, and near the same locality as the second. 

 In the autumn of 1889 a shoal of nine of ten or these Cetaceans were observed off 

 Hillswick, Shetland, of which six were captured by fishermen ; and in 1892 a 

 single specimen was taken in the Sol way. Beyond the fact that its chief food 

 consists of cuttle-fish, nothing definite appears to be known as to the habits of this 

 species. 



THE SHORT-BEAKED DOLPHINS. 

 Genus Lagenorhynchus. 



Under the general title of short-beaked dolphins may be included a group of 

 several small species, serving to connect the beakless forms with those furnished 



