292 Zoological N. Y. Zoological Society. [1; 16 



theless they often leap three feet or more clear of the surface, 

 sometimes striking the water forcibly enough to throw spray 

 thirty feet away and fifteen feet into the air. The visitor soon 

 gets the impression that they enjoy life even in captivity and 

 their keepers, while always vigilant as to their needs, have 

 ceased to be concerned about their safety, regarding them as 

 almost domesticated animals. 



The naturally sociable and gregarious habit of porpoises 

 is evider"^^ n^t lessened by captiviy. Sometimes they seize 

 each other by the back just behind the dorsal fin, but there are 

 no tooth marks on any of them and it is probably done in play. 

 The indications are that they are altogether amiable and inoffen- 

 sive toward each other. The only species of porpoise destructive 

 to its kind is the well-known "Killer" {Orca gladiator). 



Our porpoises were observed mating in January, and again 

 in March and April. It is possible that they will breed in captiv- 

 ity if their lives are not shortened by indoor life. The period of 

 gestation is not known for any species of the whale order. 



One of the five porpoises, put into the pool apparently unin- 

 jured, soon became deformed in the hinder portion of the body 

 and cannot participate in the rough gambols indulged in by the 

 others, keeping mainly to the outer circle of the pool. Its injuries 

 are probably due to rough handling at the time of capture, as 

 some of the porpoises were dragged away from the net with a 

 rope tied around the tail. Its present appearance suggests two 

 dislocations of the vertebrae back of the dorsal fin. This 

 porpoise always swims slowly and is without doubt permanently 

 crippled, yet it feeds as freely and oftens attempts to thrpM'^ 

 fishes as the others do. 



The Bottle-nosed Porpoise (Tursiops trnncatus) resembles 

 Delphinus delphis, a species of porpoise or dolphin more abun- 

 dant in the eastern Atlantic and in the Mediterranean than along 

 our coast. It is somewhat larger and darker and has fewer 

 but larger teeth, while the jaws present less of the beaked or 

 "bottle-nosed" appearance of Delphinus. The latter is the dol- 

 phin known to the ancients, and has been caricatured by painters 

 and sculptors since the very beginnings of art. The artists now 

 have an opportunity to learn what the real dolphin looks like. 



