28 



THE FOOD OF ANIMALS 



larger than the Porpoise (about 8 feet in length), and its snout 

 is drawn out into a short flat beak. The small sharp teeth are 

 often more numerous than those of the Porpoise (up to 200). 

 The habits of this creature are thus described by Vogt (in the 

 work above quoted) : — " This dolphin is the animal celebrated by- 

 fabulists and depicted by artists, the friend of man, who carries 

 the singer Arion to the shore, renders aid to the shipwrecked, 

 draws the chariot of Galatea, and carries the Tritons and nymphs 

 of the court of Amphitrite. Unfortunately all these virtues have 

 disappeared under the critical eye of modern observers, who no 

 doubt recognize in the dolphin an agreeable travelling companion, 

 who shortens the idle hours of a long sea-voyage by his graceful 

 sporting round the ship, but who, at the same time, is a terribly 

 voracious ravager, who pursues with fury the fastest swimmers 



Fig. 321. — Freshwater Dolphin [Platanista Gangeticd) 



among fishes, herrings, mackerel, water-snakes {Pelamides), and 

 flying-fish, darting about after them with the most rapid and 

 abrupt changes in his course, and hastening up to a mortally 

 wounded comrade, not to render him succour, as the ancients said, 

 but to devour him." 



Fresh-water Dolphins, feeding entirely on fish, live in the rivers 

 of India (Ganges, Indus) and South America (Amazon, Orinoco), 

 and in these the snout is prolonged into a long narrow beak, 

 armed with small teeth, and admirably adapted for seizing and 

 holding the prey. The species figured (fig. 321) is the Gangetic 

 Dolphin or Susuk {Platanista Gangetica), which is about 6yi feet 



