122 MR. R. LYDEKKER ON [Feb. 21, 



2. On Dolphins from Tiaviincore. By I\. Lydekker. 



[Received December 30, 1901.] 

 (Plate XIII.*) 



For some yeai's past all specimens of Dolphins stranded on the 

 shore or caught by the fishei-men in their nets in the neighbourhood 

 of Trevandrum, Travancore, have been collected and preserved by 

 the officials of the Trevandrum Museum. This excellent work was 

 begun by the late Director, Mr. Harold Ferguson, and, I ain glad 

 to say, is being continued by his successor, Major F. W. Dawson. 

 In most cases careful measurements have been taken of the 

 specimens in the flesh, whi]e excellent coloured sketches have been 

 made of the more important examples by Mr. C. S. Mudalear. 

 After the completion of the measurements and drawings, the 

 skeletons have been prepared — some of them, I am glad to say, 

 having been presented to the British Museum. 



As the result of the diawings and specimens sent to me by 

 Ml-. Ferguson, I have (in addition to representatives of other 

 genera) been enabled to determine two apparently distinct species 

 of the genus Tursiops, of both of which coloured figures have 

 been published in the ' Journal of the Bombay Natural History 

 Society 't. To the one I gave the name T.fergusoni ; while the 

 second I identified provisionally with the Austrahan T. caialcmia. 



Since the publication of the second of the papers just referred 

 to, I have received from Trevandrum sketches of two other 

 Dolphins taken off;' that coast. The first of these (Plate XIII. 

 fig. 1) is one of a pair taken in the autumn of 1903; while 

 the second (Plate XIII. fig. 2) was captured in October 1904. 

 Curiously enough, both appear to belong to the genus Tursiops ; 

 and, what is more curious still, they are unhke either of the two 

 specimens figured in the papers referred to above. 



Regarding the specimen taken in 1903, Mr. Ferguson wrote to 

 me as follows : — 



" I sent off last week a case containing the skeletons of two 

 Dolphins caught here lately. They are of the same species, and 

 I think of the genus Tttrsiops. They are very closely allied to, if 

 not identical with, T. catalania ; but they have no blotches at the 

 vsides, and they have a dark blue band running from the eye to 

 the front of the adipose elevation, as in the common Dolphin. 

 This band is much less conspicuous in the larger and older 

 specimen, and may possibly disappear altogether with age. I send 

 measurements of the two specimens, and a sketch of the larger 

 one, in which the blue line is only faintly shown." 



* For explanation of the Plate, see p. 128. 



t Vol. XV. pp. 41 & 408, pis. I> & C. It may be noticed that in the second of 

 llies-e papers no references are made to the tirst ; this is owing to the fact that copies 

 of the former had not been received in England at the time the latter was written. 



