16 PEOFESSOE FLOWEE ON EISSO'S DOLPHIK. 



On April 12th, 1841, a Dolphin attributed to this species was stranded nearCageaux 

 (Gironde) 1 . 



A skull is contained in the British-Museum collection, from the Isle of Wight, pre- 

 sented in 1845 by the Eev. C. Bury. 



On July 22nd, 1867, a Dolphin was cast up by the sea on the shore of the Depart- 

 ment of la Gironde, France, and taken to Arcachon, where, fortunately, it was examined 

 by M. P. Fischer, who has given 2 an excellent, and evidently trustworthy, description of 

 its external characters and skeleton, accompanied by a succinct history of the species, 

 and of its relation to the so-called Bisso's Dolphin, to which I shall afterwards have 

 occasion to refer. 



The specimen was young, measuring but 2-80 metres (9 ft. 2jin.). His description of 

 the colour is as follows : — " Le corps est de couleur noire sur le dos et les flancs, blanche 

 en dessous autour des parties genitales et de 1'anus, d'un blanc teint de gris de fer en 

 avant de la verge, blanche enfhi au niveau et en avant de la base des nageoires pec- 

 torales. Le dessous de la tete et du cou est d'un gris noiratre, marbre de taches 

 blanchatres, termine en pointe noire dirigee vers le thorax ; le dessus de la tete, le bord 

 des levres, sont egalement marbres de blanc sale. Les nageoires pectorales, caudale, et 

 l'aileron dorsal, ont une coloration noire uniforme." The dental formula was — j- 

 There were sixty-eight vertebrae — seven cervical, twelve dorsal, forty-nine lumbar and 

 caudal. 



The second Dolphin alluded to above as having been brought into notice in Cuvier's 

 1 Bapport' was known to him only by a notice and figure communicated to the Academy 

 by M. Bisso of Nice, the figure being reproduced in the same plate as that of the Grey 

 Dolphin from Brest, and marked " Delphinus ariesl" It was stated to be 3 metres 

 long, and to have five teeth on each side of the lower jaw only. The figure shows 

 numerous white lines on the surface, mostly in the longitudinal direction. 



Delphinus (Phoccena) rissoanus, of Desmarest's Mammalogie (part 2, 1822), is founded 

 on this description and figure. 



Subsequently M. Bisso published in his ' Histoire Naturelle de l'Europe meridionale,' 

 1826, tome iii. p. 23, a fuller description, under the name of "Delphimis risso, Cuv.," 

 and a different figure (pi. 1. fig. 2), the accuracy of which may be estimated by that of 

 the wretched caricature of the Globicephalus in the same plate. 



The description runs thus : — 



" D. dorso lato ; capite maximo, obtuso ; maxilla sujieriore longiore. 



" Des mceurs douces, comme la zone temperee qu'il habite, semblent etre le partage 

 de ce cetace, qui n'approche de nos cotes que dans le temps des amours. Son corps 

 est alonge, arrondi, renfie vers sa partie anterieure, diminuant insensiblement de grosseur 



1 Laporte : Actes de la Societe Linneenne de Bordeaux, 1853, t. xix. p. 215 {fide Fischer). 

 ' " Note sur un Cetace (Grampus griseus) echoue sur les cotes de France," Annales des Sciences naturelles, 

 5th ser. vol. viii. p. 363. 



