TFRSTOPS. 581 



Colour. Black, neck and belly white, a blaclv: band from tlie ancle 

 of the mouth to the pectoral fins ; lateral oblique streaks of white 

 {Graij). 



Dimensions. Length (of type skin) 65 inches, length of pectoral 

 fin 11 ; of a skull 14, breadth across orbits 6-7, length of rostrum 

 8, breadth of same at base 3-75. 



Distrihution. Indian and Pacific Oceans. A skull from Talk 

 Straits, Ceylon, is in the Museum, Calcutta. 



Genus TURSIOPS, Gervais (1855). 



General form stout. Beak moderate, tapering, separated by a 

 groove from the forehead ; dorsal and pectoral fins falcate. 



8kull and rostrum much broader than those of Steno or Del- 

 pldmis. liostrum moderately long, vei'v convex above, tapering. 

 Pterygoids in contact. Mandibular symphysis short. Teeth stout 

 (about ^ inch in diameter), occupying nearly the whole jaw. 

 Vertebra} in T. tursio : C. 7, D. 13, L. 17, C. 27 = G4. 



It is probable that two species of J'i^^-swj^? occur around India, , 

 but only one has hitherto been recognized. 



388. Tursiops tursio. The common boitle-noxe Porpoise. 



Delphinus tursio, Fabricius, Fauna Greenland, p. 49 (1780) ; Flower, 



Tr. Z. S. xi, p. 3, pi. i. 

 Delphinus eurynome. Gray, Zool. Frebus Sf Terror, p. 38, pi. xvii 



(1846) ; Bh/th, Cat. p. 90. 

 Tm-siops tursio, Flower, P. Z. ^S. 1883, p. 478; True, Delphinid(P, 



pp. 32, 158, pi. viii, figs. 1^ 2 ; W. Sclater, Cat. p. 323. 



Teeth about ;^;^. Eostrum broad, depressed, forming more than 

 half the length of the skull, its breadth in the middle 3 to | its 

 length. 



Colour of Eastern animals, not known. Atlantic specimens are 

 clear plumbeous grey, more or less tinged with purple, above, 

 including the dorsal, pectoral, and caudal fins, and passing gradually 

 into pure white on the belly. The limits of the two colours vary. 

 Some individuals are black above, pale grey below, some all grey. 



Dimensions. Total length of an adult male 9 ft. 6 in., snout 

 to dorsal fin 50 inches, length of pectoral fin 15'5, vertical height 

 of dorsal 9, breadth of flukes 24. Some individuals exceed 10 ft. 

 in length. Skull 22 inches long, 11 broad between orbits, rostrum 

 12-5 long. 



Distribution. Probably throughout temperate and tropical seas. 

 Blyth records a skull of an animal captured in the Bay of Bengal. 

 In the British Museum are specimens from Muscat and the 

 Seychelle Islands, 



It is highly probable that either Tursiops catalania described 

 from N.W. Australia, or the closely allied T. ahu.mlam, inhabiting 

 the Red Sea, is also found in the neighbourhood of India. The 



