16 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



their enemies, before whom the.y had fled terror-stricken and expecting an attack. The Porpoises, 

 not more than a dozen in nnmber, moved on in two ranks, and were evidently complete masters of 

 the field. So powerful indeed are they that they have been known to chase a large Alligator to the 

 bank, and, putting their snouts under his belly, toss him ashore."^ 



The authority referred to, Mr. Hamilton Oouper, of Hopeton, Ga., was a gentleman of some 

 prominence as a geological observer. 



5. THE DOLPHINS. 



Habits. — The Dolphins constitute a large group of cetaceans, represented by many species, and 

 abundant everywhere in temperate and tropical seas. They are often seen in mid-ocean sporting 

 in large schools, pursuing the pelagic fishes, but are still more common near the coast. They are 

 from five to fifteen feet long, gracefully formed, and very swift. Nowhere are they the objects of 

 organized pursuit, though frequently caught in nets or harpooned from the bows of vessels at sea. 

 Many cod schooners fishing on the Grand Banks, especially those from Cape Cod, depend chiefly for 

 bait upon the Porpoises they can kill and the birds they can catch. The best known species on the 

 Atlantic coast are tbe " Skunk Porpoise" or " Bay Porpoise," Lagenorhynchus perspicillatus Cope, 

 and related forms. Large schools are often seen in the sounds and along (he shore. They are 

 easily distinguished from the little Harbor Porpoise, just spoken of, by the broad stripes of white 

 and yellow upon their sides. When schools of a hundred or more can be suri'ounded and driven 

 ashore by the fishermen, as is often done on Cape Cod, a large profit is made from the sale of their 

 bodies to the oil-makers, though they are not so much prized as the Blackfish, so much larger and 

 fatter. A closely related species is the Common Porpoise of California, Lagenorhynchus obliquidens 

 Gill. " They are seen," writes Captain Scammon, "in numbers varying from a dozen up to many 

 hundreds tumbling over the surface of the sea, or making arching leaps, plunging again on the 

 same curve, or darting high and falling diagonally sidewise upon the water with a spiteful splash, 

 accompanied by a report which may be heard to some distance. In calm weather they are seen in 

 numerous shoals, leaping, plunging, lobtailing and finning, while the assemblage moves swiftly in 

 various directions. They abound more along the coasts where small fish are found. Occasionally 

 a large number of them will get into a school of fish, frightening them so much that they lose 

 nearly all control of their movements, while the Porpoises fill themselves to repletion." 



The Right Whale Porpoise, Levcorhamphus borealis (Peale) Gill, is found in the Pacific from 

 Bering Sea to Lower California, though not so abundantly as the last. The Right Whale Poi'poise 

 of the Atlantic, often spoken of by our whalers, is a related species, perhaps L. Peronii (Lac.) 

 Lilljebo: g, abundant in the South Atlantic and Pacific, but not yet recorded by naturalists for our 

 waters. Several species of the true Dolphins occur in the North Atlantic, but only one, Belphinus 

 clymenis, has been found with us. Cope having secured it in New Jersey. Baird's Dolphin D. 

 Bairdii Dall, a species six or seven feet long and weighing 100 to 175 pounds, is frequent in Cali- 

 fornia. The Cowfish of California, Tursiops Qillii Dall, is a sluggish species known to the whale- 

 men of the lagoons,^ and an allied species, T. erebennus (Cope) Gill, is known on the Atlantic coast. 

 New forms of this group are constantly being discovered. All are of commercial value when taken. 



'Lybll: Second Visit to the United States, vol. i, 1849, p. 25'i. 



^The liabits of the Cowfish, as observed on the coasts of California and Mexico, are strikingly different from those 

 of the true Porpoises. Itis often remarked by vchalemen that they are a "mongrel breed" of doubtful character, being 

 frequently seen in company with Blackfish, sometimes with Porpoises, and occasionally with Humpbacks, when the 

 latter are found in large numbers on an abundant feeding ground. They are met with likewise in the lagoons along 

 the coast, singly or in pairs, or in fives and sixes — rarely a larger number together — straggling about in a vagrant man- 

 ner through the winding estuaries, subsisting on the fish that abound in these circumscribed waters. At times they 

 are seen moving lazily along under the shade of the mangroves that in many places fringe the shores, at other times 

 lying about in listless attitudes among the plentifnl supplies of food surrounding them. — Scammon: pp. cit., p. 101. 



