2 PROF. W. H. FLOWER ON THE EXTERNAL CHARACTERS 
Lacépéde (Hist. Nat. des Cétacés, 1804), with the addition of the conventional fountain 
from the blow-hole, in both cases without acknowledgment. 
The earlier figures, all more or less inexact in outline, rude in execution, and wanting 
in colour, are those of Belon (1551), Rondelet (1554), and Aldrovandus (1613). The 
two former, especially that of Rondelet, have been repeated with modifications by the 
various compilers of the last two centuries. Belon’s account of the external characters 
and anatomy of the Common Dolphin, the Porpoise, and of a third species (of which 
I shall speak presently), is a very remarkable work for the time at which it was 
written }. 
On the 13th of March last Mr. F. Buckland kindly informed me that he had just 
received from Mr. Matthias Dunn, of Mevagissey, a Dolphin which had been caught in 
the mackerel-nets about twenty miles south of the Deadman Headland, Cornwall. It 
proved to be a young female Delphinus delphis. The elegance of the form, and the 
beauty and variety of the colouring, were such that I thought it desirable to obtain a 
correct coloured drawing of the animal while fresh, which, reduced to the scale of one 
sixth the natural size, is reproduced in fig. 1, Plate I. Instead of being simply black- 
above and white below, as usually described, the sides were shaded, mottled, and 
streaked with various tints of yellow and grey, the distribution of which can be better 
understood by a reference to the figure than by any description. The under surface 
was of the purest possible white. Perfect symmetry was shown in the colouring and 
markings on the two sides of the body. 
The length of the animal in a straight line from the tip of the beak to the notch in 
the middle of the tail was 5 feet 1} inch. The other principal dimensions were as 
_ follows :-— 
inches. 
End of beak to anterior end of dorsal fin. . . . °. joint ap eo LaD: 
aes. insertion of anterior end of pectoral fin : <2 eSee lGad 
Spay TIVES Ot TT AOE GS EME iamrel so oo ol EHO 
Ancle‘ot mouth) toanterior angle/ot'eye.. 9 5 = sy. 2 6a es ee 9 
Length of eye-aperture . . ats ey SEE em Penns 
Posterior angle of eye to eect aailitary Meatuse) qolbae «< Dyk cee ae 
iene thtofbaserofidorsalefing!.., ancien, or -l-oieen ECemnenPe. | n )- 0Nes Sy, 
Height of dorsal fin. . . . es) o. du os cam OtkOl ol aku 
Length of anterior margin of ectoral fin EeoreD co 8. a ae ee ee ee LOH) 
Bs posterior 5 a EME Eh ON Am ee tee We hy ELS) 
Breadthvob caudal fins. soc. c pee do) fs isc ge somes ofa PD oo 
46—44 
The dental formula was =# = 
= 185, which corresponds nearly with that usually 
' «T/Histoire naturelle des étranges Poissons marins, avec la vraie peinture et description du Daulphin,’ &e. 
Paris, 1551. 
