us ' CETACEA. 



My attention was first called to this Cetacean genus while residing with my 

 brother in the Royal Botanical Gardens, Calcutta. The residence^ of the Superintend- 

 ent of these Gardens, from its proximity to the river bank, and from its commanding 

 position, overlooking a long deep reach of the Hughli, afforded very favourable con- 

 ditions for observing the habits and for obtaining specimens of • this dolphin. 

 The observations there instituted led me to doubt the conclusion which Eschricht had 

 arrived at, viz., that the animal actually leaves the river during the cold weather 

 and takes to the sea, and I therefore commenced a correspondence to render my 

 inquiries complete, and also drew up a series of questions to elicit all the facts 

 regarding its distribution and habits. This schedule of queries was printed and 

 circulated by Government among the civil and other officials resident along the 

 courses of the greater rivers of India and Burma, and among the members of the 

 Pilot Service. Notwithstanding that the inquiry was of a novel and rather 

 unusual character, the replies were most complete and full of interest, and, more- 

 over, examples of the dolphin were sent to me from the Indus, Ganges, and 

 Brahmaputra. 



I gladly embrace this opportunity to express my indebtedness to all of those 

 officers whose hearty co-operation in the research has greatly enabled me to settle 

 the questions which are treated of in this contribution towards a history of this 

 Cetacean. The following remarks on distribution are the result of a careful analysis 

 of the reports received. 



Distribution. — To illustrate the distribution of this Cetacean genus I have had 

 the accompanying map prepared, in which its range is shown by a coloured line 

 carried through those river systems of India in which it exists, and a glance will 

 show that the information I have received does not establish its presence in the 

 Nerbudda or Godavery, nor in the river systems of Burma. 



The pilots stationed at the Sandheads, and who having so frequently to pass up 

 and down the Hughli in which the dolphin abounds, are therefore familiar with it, 

 unite with other Government Marine officials thoroughly acquainted with the sea-face 

 of the delta of Bengal, in asserting that the long-snouted dolphin of the Ganges is 

 never seen out at sea. I have never heard of an instance of its occurrence below 

 Mud Point in Saugor Island, at the mouth of the Huglili, and from the reports 

 submitted to me it would appear to have a similar limit to its seaward distribution in 

 the other estuary streams of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, and I have satisfied myself 

 of the correctness of these observations by personally going round a considerable 

 portion of the sea-face of the Sunderbunds. Similar reports have reached me regard- 

 ing the restriction of this genus to the fresh waters of the Indus. I have also to 

 add the testimony of Blyth^ that it has never been observed out to sea. 



Its distribution in the Ganges is recorded over an area comprised between the 

 77th and 89th degrees of east longitude. In the Brahmaputra it occurs through- 



^ Roxburgh, who, with Lebeck, shares the credit of having first described and named the dolphin of the Ganges, 

 designed the house and lived in it. 



- Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. xxviii, 1859, p. 493. 



