16 PROFESSOR FLOWER ON RISSO’S DOLPHIN. 
On April 12th, 1844, a Dolphin attributed to this species was stranded near Cageaux 
(Gironde)'. 
A skull is contained in the British-Museum collection, from the Isle of Wight, pre- 
sented in 1845 by the Rev. C. Bury. 
On July 22nd, 1867, a Dolphin was cast up by the sea on the shore of the Depart- 
ment of la Gironde, France, and taken to Arcachon, where, fortunately, it was examined 
by M. P. Fischer, who has given’ an excellent, and evidently trustworthy, description of 
its external characters and skeleton, accompanied by a succinct history of the species, 
and of its relation to the so-called Risso’s Dolphin, to which I shall afterwards have 
occasion to refer. 
The specimen was young, measuring but 2°80 metres (9 ft. 27 in.). His description of 
the colour is as follows :—“ Le corps est de couleur noire sur le dos et les flancs, blanche 
en dessous autour des parties génitales et de l’anus, d’un blanc teint de gris de fer en 
avant de la verge, blanche enfin au niveau et en avant de la base des nageoires pec- 
torales. Le dessous de la téte et du cou est d’un gris noiratre, marbré de taches 
blanchatres, terminé en pointe noire dirigée vers le thorax; le dessus de la téte, le bord 
des lévres, sont également marbrés de blanc sale. Les nageoires pectorales, caudale, et 
aileron dorsal, ont une coloration noire uniforme.” The dental formula was = 
There were sixty-eight vertebre—seven cervical, twelve dorsal, forty-nine lumbar and 
caudal. 
The second Dolphin alluded to above as having been brought into notice in Cuvier’s 
‘Rapport’ was known to him only by a notice and figure communicated to the Academy 
by M. Risso of Nice, the figure being reproduced in the same plate as that of the Grey 
Dolphin from Brest, and marked “ Delphinus aries?” It was stated to be 3 metres 
long, and to have five teeth on each side of the lower jaw only. The figure shows 
numerous white lines on the surface, mostly in the longitudinal direction. 
Delphinus (Phocena) rissoanus, of Desmarest’s Mammalogie (part 2, 1822), is founded 
on this description and figure. 
Subsequently M. Risso published in his ‘ Histoire Naturelle de l'Europe méridionale,’ 
1826, tome iii. p. 23, a fuller description, under the name of “ Delphinus risso, Cuv.,” 
and a different figure (pl. 1. fig. 2), the accuracy of which may be estimated by that of 
the wretched caricature of the Globicephalus in the same plate. 
The description runs thus :— 
“ D. dorso lato; capite maximo, obtuso; maxilla superiore longiore. 
‘“¢ Des mceurs douces, comme la zone tempérée quil habite, semblent étre le partage 
de ce cétacé, qui n’approche de nos cédtes que dans le temps des amours. Son corps 
est alongé, arrondi, renflé vers sa partie antérieure, diminuant insensiblement de grosseur 
' Laporte: Actes de la Société Linnéenne de Bordeaux, 1853, t. xix. p. 215 ( fide Fischer). 
> «Note sur un Cétacé (Grampus griseus) échoué sur les cétes de France,” Annales des Sciences naturelles, 
5th ser. vol. viii. p. 363. 
