THE WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN 



Genus Lagenorhynchus. 



THE WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN. 



Lagenorhynchus acutus. Gray. 

 Plate 49. 



Two species of this genus (the Short-beaked Dolphins) characterised 

 by their rounded heads, short beaks, and large number of vertebrae, occur 

 occasionally in the British Islands. 



The White-sided Dolphin attains a length of 6 to 8 feet when 

 fully grown, the males being larger than the females. The dorsal fin 

 is high and falcate, the flippers pointed and scimitar-shaped. The 

 body is compact and stout, but much compressed where it joins the 

 flukes of the tail. 



My friend Mr. Pycraft has kindly supplied me with some notes 

 and sketches taken from freshly killed specimens received at the British 

 Museum of Natural History, -from which, with the help of a cast of the 

 animal in the Gallery, I have drawn the figure in the Plate and described 

 the colour. 



According to Mr. Pycraft, the " beak and upper surface of the 

 head are dull black, edge of upper jaw (the *tip') shading into dull 

 greyish white towards the gape. A broad belt of black encircles the 

 eye, and from this there runs forward a narrow black line to terminate 

 at about the posterior one third of the rostral groove. 



" Below this line, the white of the flanks and side of the head 

 runs forward to form a narrow wedge interrupted in front of the eye 



93 



