Elegance and Colouf 241 



beneath it is exceedingly striking as well as pleasing. 

 It is always carried erect, but sometimes, as when the 

 fish mcikes one of its immense parabolic leaps after 

 prey, such as a flying-fish, it seems to stand much 

 higher than usual and to glow with greater intensity. 

 It gives the fish a grand appearance and adds greatly 

 to its apparent size. The caudal iin is very large also, 

 deeply forked, and most elegant in shape. When the 

 fish is in haste, its vibrations are so rapid that it seems 

 to take an entirely new shape, and if the sun is shining 

 it appears like two rays of flame branching out in the 

 fish's wake, being of the same metaUic hue as the dorsal 

 fin. The pectoral, ventral, and anal fins are com- 

 paratively insignificant, as indeed is usual with what 

 I like to caU normally shapen fish. Only oM^re-shaped 

 fish have these minor fins fantastically and hugely 

 developed. 



The general shape of the Dolphin is excellently 

 adapted for speed. His head is high in front, almost 

 rectangular, but presenting a sharp bow. The body 

 behind does not thicken very much, the largest speci- 

 men I ever caught being, although six feet long, only 

 six inches through. It was more than a foot wide 

 though, and its mouth was a horizontal gash in its 

 head that opened wedge-shaped and large enough 

 to admit a fish six inches in diameter. Also it was 

 well-furnished with exceedingly sharp teeth, in closely 

 set rows, but quite small. 



The female is precisely similar in appearance to the 

 male except in the contour of the forehead, which 

 recedes with a beautiful curve from the upper jaw, 

 instead of being high and rectangular like that of the 

 male. In coloiu: she is quite as gaudy as her spouse, 

 but in size, as usual, inferior. 



Now with regard to their breeding-places, they 



16 



