CHAPTER IX. 

 THE DOLPHINS. 



In addition to the whalebone whales, and the Cachalot, which have been de- 

 scribed in the preceding pages as frequenting the North -western Coast of North 

 America, many species of Dolphins are also found. Those coming under our ob- 

 servation are known as the Blackfish {Olobiocephalus Scammonii), the Killer {Orca), 

 the Whitefish {Beluga), the Bay Porpoise {Plioccena vonierina), the Striped or Com- 

 mon Porpoise {Lagenorhynchus oiliquidens) , Baird's Dolphin [DelpTiinus Bairdii), the 

 Right Whale Porpoise [ Leucorhamphus horealis), the Cowfish (Tursiops GiUii), the 

 White-headed or Mottled Gi-ampus [O-rampus Stearnsii), the Bottle -nosed Grampus, 

 the Panama Grampus, the Puget Sound Grampus, the San Diego Bay Grampus, the 

 Square -headed Grampus, the Brown -sided Dolphin of Santa Barbara Channel, and 

 the Narwhal {Monodon monoceros). All these species are covered with a coating 

 of fat, or blubber, varying in thickness from one -half of one inch to four inches. 



SECTION I. -THE BLACKFISH. 



Globiocephalus ScAMMONn, Cope. (Plate- xtL.) 



BlackSsh are generally found wherever Sperm Whales resort, but in many in- 

 stances they congregate in much larger numbers, and range nearer the coast, than 

 the regular feeding - grounds of the latter. Although subsisting almost entirely upon 

 the same kind of food — the "squid," or octopus — still, at times, when schools of 

 them visit bays or lagoons, they prey upon the small fish swarming in those shal- 

 low waters. In Magdalena Bay we have seen them in moderate numbers, appearing 

 as much at home miles from sea as the Common Porpoise or the Cowfish. They 

 collect in schools, from ten or twenty up to hundreds, and when going along upon 

 the surface of the sea, there is less of the rising and falling movement than with 

 the Porpoise, and their spoutings, before "going down," are irregular, both in num- 

 ber and time between respirations. If the animal is moving quickly, much of the 

 head and body is exposed. Whalemen call this going "eye out." In low latitudes, 



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