Curious Sfarhinrjs on a Dolphin. 503 



ha9 noted that during the contraction of the mylohyoid the 

 tongue " wird iiach vorn und obcn qezogen." For the further 

 development of this movement into the protrusion of tho 

 tongue all that is required is the further simultaneous advance 

 of the hyoid bone and a more complete contraction of the 

 ni} lohyoid muscle. 



1 i)roposc completing this study with a detailed account of 

 the dissection of the structures involved, for which I am 

 awaiting the suppl}^ of larger objects than the common grass- 

 frog, which is alone at my disposal at Cork. 



LXIV. — L^ote on a Dolphin showing traces of an Kacountcr 

 with a Cuttlefish. By Professor D'ArCY W. THOMPSON, 

 C.B. 



A SPECIMEN of Grampus griseus which 1 obtained last 

 Christmas at (jalway set me thinking of the curious markings 

 which have been often described as present on this species, 

 though I did not find them on this particular specimen. 

 These markings are well figured in Flower's paper in the 

 * Transactions of the Zoological Society ' (vol. viii. pi. i.) ; 

 and the suggestion first made by Capt. Chaves, of Ponta 

 Delgada *, that they are the traces of encounters with large 

 cuttlefishes is now well known and generally accepted. The 

 purpose of this note is to call attention to a very much older 

 figure of a dolphin on which a great cuttlefish has left his 

 unmistakable marks. 



The annexed figure is a copy of that on pi. xxviii. (Mam- 

 niil^res) fig. 2, of the ' Voyage de I'Astrolabe,' and represents 

 the lower surface of the head of Delphinus nova^-zelandice, 

 Q. et G., a somewhat doubtful species very closely resembling 

 1). delj'his. On j). loU of the text the authors say : — "On 

 remarque sous la niiichoire inferieure des pores formant de 

 petits anneaux ; et sur le corps, de petites plaques de stries 

 blanches assez reguli^rement contourndes." This statement 

 appears again in Gray's ' Catalogue of Seals and Whales,' 

 p. 246. A glance at the figure will show that the su-called 

 pores are the clear impressions of the suckers of a cuttlotish. 

 The dolphin itself was 5 feet 10 inches long, and we may 

 judge from the figures that the sucker-rings were about, or 

 very nearly, an incii in diameter. We may, perhaps, go a 



* In Girard's " CtSpbalopodes des iles Azores," Jom. Sc. math. phya. e 

 natur., Lisboa, (2j ii. 189:^. Cf. also Richard et Neuville, Mdui. 8oc. 

 Zool., Paris, vol. x. p. 102 (1897). 



