OF TWO SPECIES OF BRITISH DOLPHINS. 



observed in the species, some individual variation being always met witb, even in the 

 different sides of the mouth. There are fifteen pairs of ribs, the last being unattached 

 to its corresponding vertebra, and 21 lumbar and 31 caudal vertebrae, making altogether, 

 with the cervical and thoracic, a total of 74 vertebrae. The skeleton has been pre- 

 pared for the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. The stomach contained the 

 partially digested remains of numerous fish, apparently mackerel. 



This species is the true Dolphin of the ancients, being the most abundant and 

 characteristic species in the Mediterranean. Its exact geographical distribution has 

 not yet been defined with precision, owing to the difficulty of distinguishing it from 

 allied species, a difficulty which it is hoped the present illustration may in some measure 

 help to overcome. It is not uncommon in the Atlantic, being well known on the 

 west coast of France ; and it frequently visits the English Channel, pursuing the shoals 

 of pilchards and mackerel. In the Museum of the College of Surgeons is the skeleton 

 of a fine adult animal, which, when alive, must have been about 7 feet long, taken 

 near the beginning of the present century at Worthing. Northwards of this locality 

 it appears to become rare. Van Beneden does not include it among the Cetacea 

 frequenting the Belgian coast, as he was not able to find any example of its capture 

 in the North Sea. Specimens, however, are occasionally met with on the coasts of 

 Norway and Denmark, as mentioned by Lilljeborg and Bernhardt; and it is included 

 in many of the lists of the Cetacea of the Greenland seas ; but it is doubtful whether 

 some of the species of the allied genus Lagenorhynchus may not have been mistaken 

 for it. 



Judging from the figure and description in Scammon's ' Marine Mammals of the 

 North-western Coast of North America' (187 '4), Delphinus bairdii, Dall, is a closely 

 allied, perhaps identical species inhabiting the North Facific ; but further observations, 

 especially osteological comparisons, are required before the latter surmise can be con- 

 sidered proved. 



The second species, of which I wish to offer an original and, I believe, faithful 

 drawing to the Society, is Delphinus tursio of Fabricius '. The best known figure 

 of this animal is that given by John Hunter in his classical " Observations on the 

 Structure and (Economy of Whales," published in the 'Philosophical Transactions,' 

 vol. lxxvii. (1787). This is taken from a young animal caught, with its mother, near 

 Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, and sent to Hunter by the celebrated Edward Jenner. It 

 is described in the memoir as " a species of Bottle-nosed Whale, the Delphinus delphis 

 of Linneeus." It was, however, identified by Cuvier with D. tursio of Fabricius, and so 

 described by Prof. Owen in his editorial notes to Hunter's collected works (1837). 



1 The identification of the present well-known species with the D. tursio of Fabricius has been questioned. 

 The description in the 'Fauna Groenlandica' (1780, p. 49) is certainly vague and unsatisfactory; but the name 

 is now so generally accepted that it would cause much confusion to attempt to change it, even if it could be 

 proved to have been wrongly imposed. 



B 2 



