374 THE PORPOISE 



make a breathing hole. A third suggestion is due to Scoresby, 

 who was led to make it from having taken out of the stomach of 

 a Narwhal a large skate. He held that with its tusk the Whale 

 empaled the tish and then swallowed it. The Narwhal is not 

 large, 15 feet or so in length. But Laeepede, who was apt to 

 compile with lack of discrimination, speaks of 60 feet long 

 Narwhals. Alonodon is purely Arctic, and but three or four 

 specimens have ever been cast up on our shores. 



Of true Porpoises, genus PJbOcaena, there are apparently 

 several species. The genus itself has the following characters : — 

 The teeth are sixteen to twenty-six on each half of each jaw ; 

 their crowns are compressed and lobed. The pterygoids do not 

 meet. The dorsal fin has a row of tubercles along its margin. 



The Porpoise of our coasts, P. com.munis, is a smallish species 

 6 to 8 feet in length. There are two to four hairs present in 

 the young ; its colour is black, generally lighter on the belly. 

 The first six cervical vertebrae are fused. The ribs vary in 

 numljer from twelve to fourteen pairs. It is a gregarious Whale, 

 and will ascend rivers ; it has been seen for example in the 

 Seine at Paris. The name Porpoise is often written Porkpisce, 

 which of course shows its origin. Very conveniently it was 

 regarded as a fish, and therefore allowed to be eaten in Lent. 

 The celebrated Dr. Caius, a gourmet as well as a physician and 

 the refounder of a college, invented a particular sauce wherewith 

 to dress this royal dish. Some time since Dr. Gray described a 

 Porpoise from Margate as a distinct species (see p. 342) on account 

 of the tubercles, which are now known to be a generic character. 



Dr. Burmeister's P. spinipennis seems, however, to be really 

 distinct. It was captured near the mouth of the Piio de la Plata. 

 It is more tuberculated on the fin and back, and has fewer teeth 

 (sixteen as against twenty-six). 



Mr. True's P. dcdlii of the Pacific (where the Common 

 Porpoise also occurs) is characterised chiefly by its very long 

 vertebral column, consisting of ninety-eight vertebrae ; there 

 are only sixty-eight in the other species. The Eastern genus 

 Neomeris is placed with Phocaena by Dr. Blanford. It practi- 

 cally only differs by the absence of a dorsal fin. It is only 

 about 4 feet long, and inhabits the seas of India, Cape of Good 

 Hope, and Japan. The one species is called JV. phocaenoides. 



The genus GloiicepiJialus is to be defined thus: — Teeth 



