THE COMMON DOLPHIN. 41 



probably from this quarter. The dolphin seems to be of rare occurrence 

 on the Dublin coast, as Dr. Jacob informed me in January, 183!), that in 

 the course of many years he could obtain but one specimen. Dr. R. Ball 

 considers it as not uncommon on the southern coast, and it is named in 

 the Cork Fauna of Dr. Harvey. 



The following notes were made by me on the Mediterranean when on 

 board H. M. S. Beacon in 1841 :— 



April \6fh. A herd of dolphins, in size and colour like the common 

 species, kept rolling about near our vessel in the Straits of Messina. 



31(11/ 4th. Egean Sea. A round-backed species of Dclphinus with a 

 large dorsal fin, to which the sailors gave the name of Porpoise, rolling 

 near the ship : three passed with amazing velocity, close under the bow 

 where I was standing. 



3Icnj 5t/i. Several of them near the ship when we were close to Syra ; 

 two rolling about with their young so near to them that the dorsal fins of 

 the two individuals in each case appeared to belong to one animal : — they 

 thus exhibited themselves rising to the surface and going down again 

 several times with as much regularity as a pair of horses in harness. May 

 not their appearance in this manner have given rise to the fable of their 

 drawing the chariot of Amphitrite across the sea ? 



3Iai/ I'Sth. Dardanelles ; saw the same species at Koum Kali. 



3Iaj/ \~th. Bosphorus; several of the same, going northwards towards 

 the Black Sea. This Dclphinus was not either of Kisso's — D. t/lobiceps, or 

 I). Risso. Cuv. Hist. Kat. L. Eur. 3Ierid. tome iii. p. 23, pi. 1, f. 1, 2. 



It is worthy of remark that no species of Dclphinus (Linn.) appeared in 

 the open sea between Marseilles and Malta or thence to the Levant. 



The Bottle-nosed Dolphin, Delphinus Tnrsio, Fabr., 



Can only be noticed positively as having twice occurred. 



Dr. J. E. Gray, in a paper on British Cetacea, published in the Annals 

 of Nat. Hist, for February, 184(i (vol xvii. p. 84), mentioned having in 

 his possession a drawing of one made by Mr. R. Templeton from a speci- 

 men caught on the south coast of Ireland; and on loth Sept., 1851, Dr. 

 R. Ball wrote to me as follows : — " I got a fine specimen of Dclphinus Tursio 

 taken here [Dublin] about the 5th inst., — the only one I ever saw. I 

 have made a cast of it."* 



In M'Skimmin's History of Carrickfergus it is observed, under the title 

 Bulrcna : — '' A very large fish is sometimes seen by the fishers, which they 

 call a Bottlenose.'" — It is uncertain, however, what species this may be. 



Only three individuals of the D. Tursio are noticed in Bell's British 

 ]\Iammalia (1837) as having occurred on the coast of Great Britain, — one 

 of these was taken on the coast near licrhciey (Hunter), another in the 

 river Dort (Montagu), and the third in the river at Preston (Jenyns) : — 

 a few years before 183.5, when the Manual of British Vertebrate Animals 

 was published, a fourth individual is mentioned in the latter work as taken 

 in the Thames. — The following paragraph from the I'reston Pilot was 

 copied into the Northern Whig of Sept. 26th, 1840. 



"A Dolphin. The inhabitants living in tlie vicinity of the old quay, at Lan- 

 caster, were thrown into an unwonted state of activity and excitement early on 

 Sunday hist by the vagaries of a large sea-monster, which was jumping about, 

 .and spouting out jets of water, in the river Lunc, a little below the old bridge. 

 As soon as it got sufficiently light, all who could lay their hands on a gun were 



* Three others have since occurred. R. Ball, June, 1852. 



