MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 1 9 ■ 



and the concealment of their watery surroundings. The common dolphin 

 may be known from the bottle-nosed animal by its long snout and peculiar 

 striped markings of the sides of body and head. It is a much slenderer ani- 

 mal than the harbor porpoise or herring hog which frequents our bays and 

 rivers, the latter resembling in color and shape of head more closely the 

 bottlenose. The latter, however, is not nearly as stout and round-finned as 

 the harbor porpoise and has a " beak " wholly lacking in the latter species. 

 This is "The Dolphin" of the ancients, mythology and fable. Its variegated 

 colors, swiftness, sociability and abundance in the Meditteranean make it the 

 most familiar of the Cetaceans. At the same time it has been so confused 

 with other species as to make most accounts of it unreliable. 



Records in N.J. — True records 2 specimens from New York Harbor and 

 Bay. — Bull. Nat. Museum, 1889, pp. 56, 57. 



Cape May Co., Ocean City. — A female containing foetus was presented to 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in 1894. The skeleton of 

 the adult is No. 5360, Coll. A. N. S., Phila. 



Genus Prodelphinus Gervais, Osteographie des Cetaces, 1880, p. 604. 

 Spotted Dolphin. Prodelphinus plagiodon (Cope). 



1866. Delphinus plagiodon Cope, Proceedings Academy Natural Sciences, 

 Philadelphia, p. 296. 



1889. Prodelphinus plagiodon True, Bulletin U. S. National Museum, No. 

 36, p. 66. 



Type locality. — Unknown. Type is " No. 3,884 Mus. Smithsonian " Insti- 

 tution, Washington. — Cope. Probably from the east coast of United States. 



Faunal distribution. — Abundant in the Gulf of Mexico and on the coast 

 of the United States as far north as Cape Hatteras. — True, 1884. Stated by 

 Jordan to reach the coast of N. J. 



Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — The only mention that I discover referring 

 this species to our fauna, is by Jordan in the 1899 edition of his Manual of 

 the Vertebrates of Northern United States, page 333, in which he gives the 

 habitat as " North Atlantic, south to N. J." He probably meant South 

 Atlantic, north to N. J. As Mr. True is stated by Jordan in the preface to 

 have "revised " his " Cetaceans," I conclude that "N. J." is considered by 

 that gentleman within its range. Cope, in the Proc. A. N. S., 1865, p. 201, 

 under " D. clymene Gray," records a "specimen in the Museum of the 

 Academy from off New Jersey, presented by John Krider." This I have just 

 examined and it appears to be Prodelphinus plagiodon. If so it is the only 

 N. J. record known to me. Dr. True, who recently examined it, finds this 

 skull to be identical with Gray's figure of P. euphtosyne. In this opinion I 

 concur. 



