2 PROF. W. H. FLOWER ON THE EXTERNAL CHARACTERS 



Lacepede (Hist. Nat. des Cetaces, 1804), with the addition of the conventional fountain 

 from the blow-hole, in both cases without acknowledgment. 



The earlier figures, all more or less inexact in outline, rude in execution, and wanting 

 in colour, are those of Belon (1551), Eondelet (1554), and Aldrovandus (1613). The 

 two former, especially that of Eondelet, have been repeated with modifications by the 

 various compilers of the last two centuries. Belon's account of the external characters 

 and anatomy of the Common Dolphin, the Porpoise, and of a third species (of which 

 I shall speak presently), is a very remarkable work for the time at which it was 

 written l . 



On the 13th of March last Mr. F. Buckland kindly informed me that he had just 

 received from Mr. Matthias Dunn, of Mevagissey, a Dolphin which had been caught in 

 the- mackerel-nets about twenty miles south of the Deadman Headland, Cornwall. It 

 proved to be a young female Delphinus delphis. The elegance of the form, and the 

 beauty and variety of the colouring, were such that I thought it desirable to obtain a 

 correct coloured drawing of the animal while fresh, which, reduced to the scale of one 

 sixth the natural size, is reproduced in fig. 1, Plate I. Instead of being simply black 

 above . and white below, as usually described, the sides were shaded, mottled, and 

 streaked with various tints of yellow and grey, the distribution of which can be better 

 understood by a reference to the figure than by any description. The under surface 

 was of the purest possible white. Perfect symmetry was shown in the colouring and 

 markings on the two sides of the body. 



The length of the animal in a straight line from the tip of the beak to the notch in 

 the middle of the tail was 5 feet 1^ inch. The other principal dimensions were as 

 follows : — 



inches. 



End of beak to anterior end of dorsal fin 315 



„ ,, insertion of anterior end of pectoral fin 161 



„ „ angle of mouth 9'0 



Angle of mouth to anterior angle of eye 19 



Length of eye-aperture 0'8 



Posterior angle of eye to external auditory meatus 1*5 



Length of base of dorsal fin 8"7 



Height of dorsal fin 55 



Length of anterior margin of pectoral fin 10"0 



„ posterior „ „ 69 



Breadth of caudal fin 138 



The dental formula was ^^ = 185, which corresponds nearly with that usually 



1 ' L'Histoire naturelle des etranges Poissons marins, avec la vraie peinture et description du Daulphin,' &c. 

 Paris. 1551. 



