BRITISH MAMMALS 



Genus Tursiops. 



THE BOTTLE-NOSED DOLPHIN. 



Tursiops tursio, Fabricius. 

 Plate 50. 



Apart from colour and size, the chief external difference between this 

 species and its near relation the Common Dolphin, lies in the shape of the 

 beak, which in the Bottle-nosed Dolphin is short and depressed and has the 

 lower jaw slightly longer than the upper. It has also fewer teeth, possessing 

 only from twenty to twenty-five pairs in each jaw. 



The total length of the animal is from 8 to 10 feet. 



The colour of the upper part of the head and body, including the fins 

 and tail, is a glossy purplish or greyish black, the margin of the upper lip to 

 the point of the beak, greyish white, the lower jaw, throat and belly, white. 

 In some individuals the colour of the under parts is dark grey marked with 

 patches of white. 



This Dolphin is not uncommon off the coasts on either side of the 

 Atlantic, in America ranging as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, and in 

 Europe occurring in the North Sea, Bay of Biscay, and Mediterranean 

 (Millais). A good many have been captured on the English coasts, the 

 first recorded having been a female taken along with a sucker near Berkeley, 

 and described by John Hunter in 1787. 



Its occurrence in Northern Britain seems to be less fi-equent, though it 

 appears from time to time along the Scottish shores. In October 1901 a 

 party of six were stranded at Inverness. 



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