372 



CETACEA, 



The Dolphins, properly so called (Delphinus}, have the forehead arched 

 and the snout prolonged into a sort of beak. 



The Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis] is provided with from forty-two to 

 forty-seven slender curved and sharp-pointed teeth in each jaw ; it is black above, white 

 beneath, and from eight to ten feet in length. It is found abundantly around the British 

 shores and all over the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Its elegant and graceful form, the 

 extraordinary fleetness with which it 'darts through the water, and its agile gambols, 

 have been celebrated in all ages. 



The Porpoises (Plioccend] have no prolonged snout ; their muzzle is short 

 and uniformly convex. 



The Common Porpoise (DelpJiinus PJwccena] is furnished with compressed 

 cuttkig teeth of a rounded form, about five-and-twenty in number, on each side of both 

 jaws. It is the smallest of the Cetacea, seldom exceeding four or five feet in length ; 

 it is very common in all our seas, where it is met with in large shoals. 



The Grampus (Delphinus Oreo) has thick conical teeth, about eleven in number 

 on each side, a little crooked, the posterior ones flattened transversely. The body is 

 black above, white below, with a white mark over the eye in the shape of a crescent. 

 The dorsal fin is high and pointed. This is the largest of the dolphins, being fre- 

 quently from twenty to twenty-five feet long. Grampuses are said to attack the whale 

 in troops, harass it until it opens its mouth, and then devour its tongue. 



The Narwhals ^Monodoii} have no teeth in the mouth, but are furnished 

 with a straight and pointed tusk, projecting from the upper jaw and directed 

 straight forward. The form of the head and body much resembles that of the 

 porpoises. Only one species is well known, namely, 



The Sea-Unicorn (Monodon* monoccros^}. The tusk of this animal is some- 

 times ten feet long, spirally twisted, and w T as formerly thought to be the horn of the 



* [j,6vos, monos, single ; odovs, oSovros, odous, odontos, a tooth, 

 f /j.6vos, monos, single; /cepas, ceras, aJwrn. 



