206 MAMMALIA. 
which the head bears the usual proportion to the body, and 
those in which it is immoderately large. The first compre- 
hends the Dolphins and the Narwhals. ' 
Devpuinus, Lin. 
The Dolphins have teeth in both jaws, all simple, and almost always 
conical. They,are the most carnivorous, and, in proportion to their 
size, the most cruel of their order. There is no cecum.(1) nee 
Detrninus, Cuv. * 
The Dolphins, properly so called, have a convex forehead, and the 
muzzle forming a kind of rostrum, or ia in front of the head, 
more slender than the rest. 
D. delphis, L.; Lacep. Cet. pl. xiii, t le (The Common Dol- 
phin.) The hiche depressed and armed on each side of the jaw 
with from forty-two to forty-seven teeth, slender, arcuate, and 
pointed; black above, white beneath; from eight to ten feet in 
length. This animal, found in numerous bodies in every sea, 
and celebrated for the velocity of its motion, which sometimes 
precipitates it on the decks of vessels, appears really to have 
been the Dolphin of the ancients. The entire organization of the 
brain seems to indicate the docility they attributed to it. 
D. tursio, Bonnaterre ; vulg. le Souffleurs; Lacep. XV, f. 2. 
(The Great Dolphin.) Snout short, broad and depressed; from 
twenty-one to twenty-four teeth throughout, conical, and often 
blunted. Individuals have been seen fifteen feet in length, and 
it appears that they are found in the Mediterranean as well as 
in the Ocean.(2) 
D. dubius, Cuy. Only thirty-six or thirty-seven teeth through-, 
out, but as fine and pointed as those of the Common Dolphin, 
which it also resembles in its colours. 
D. frontalis, Duss. Very similar to the preceding, but eae 
ed somewhat differently, and has thirty-four teeth throughout. 
Discovered by M. Dussumier, at the Cape de Verd Islands. 
D. frontatus, Cuy. But twenty-one teeth throughout, larger 
(1) There is no family of the Mammalia more difficult to observe, of which 
we have more imperfect descriptions, and whose synonymes are more fluctuating 
than that of the Cetacea. I have endeavored to select authentic species. 
(2) The Whale or Capidolio of Belon, and the Orca, of the same author, which 
very probably is that of the ancients, belong also to the division of Dolphins 
with snouts, and are much larger than the aboye mentioned species; but their cha- 
racters are not sufficiently determined. The Dauphin féres of A as is pro- 
bably referable to one of the two. 
