20 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 



Remarks on habits, characters, etc. — In the second reference made at the 

 head of this article True concludes this species is distinct from P. doris 

 (Gray.) The specimens he describes were taken, one in 1884, at Pensacola, 

 Fla., the other at Cape Hatteras, later. Both were males, and he considers 

 them the " most beautiful cetacean he ever examined," distinguished from 

 D. delphis by the spotted gray body and the less falcate dorsal fin. The 

 schools seen were very numerous at both localities. The organs of the 

 Florida specimen showed that May and June was the rutting season. The 

 length is 6 feet, the height of dorsal fin pj^ mches. The form of head and 

 body is like D. delphis. 



Genus Phoccena Cuvier, Regne Animal, Vol. I, 181 7, p. 279. 

 Harbor Porpoise ; Herringf Hog; Phoccena phoccena (Linnaeus). 



1758. Delphinus phoccena Linnseus, Systema Naturae, vol. i, p. 77. 



1888. Phoccena phoccena Jordan, Manual Vert. Animals of Nor. U. States, 



P- 331- 



Type locality. — Coast of Europe. 



Faunal distribution. — North Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean from Baffin's 

 Bay to France and Maryland; ascending bays and rivers, sometimes far 

 above tidewater limits. 



Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Abundant on the seaboard, and in the bays 

 and inlets of N. J., coming within the limits of Penna. in Delaware-Bay and 

 River as far up as Trenton Falls. Sometimes ascends the Raritan and 

 Passaic Rivers and is a frequent visitor in New York Bay and the Hudson 

 River beyond the Northern border of N. J. 



Habits, etc. — This is pre-eminently a shore and river species, delighting in 

 the surf of sandy beaches and following the shoals of herring and other fish 

 from the bays into rivers and freshwater shoals scarcely deep enough to give 

 them cover. It is known from other porpoises and dolphins by the clumsy 

 rounded head (lacking a- "beak"), and by the stout form and uniform dusky 

 coloration. It is a small animal, averaging about 5 feet in length. Dr. God- 

 man, who gives a most ample and graphic account of the dolphin in our har- 

 bors, says he has not seen the porpoise. Either he was mistaken in his 

 identification or else the relative abundance of the two has since then be- 

 come reversed. 



Records in Pa. and N. J., Delaware River. — " Occasionally ascends the 

 Del. R. to within the hmits of [Delaware] Co." — J. Cassin, List of Quad, in 

 "Hist. Del. Co., Pa.," 1862, Appx. 



See Cope's Phoccena lineata. ? Type taken in N. Y. harbor in 1876, and 

 descr. by Cope from spec, now in U. S. National Museum, Cat. No. 1 2,481 > 



