MAMMALS OF MARYLAND 



177 



Maryland records. — The pygmy sperm whale is known from Mary- 

 land by a live specimen that came ashore at Ocean City, Worcester 

 County, in August 1969. Vacationers at the beach repeatedly tried to 

 push the small whale back to sea. Eventually, during a high tide the 

 animal worked its way into deeper water where it struggled away. 

 The stranding of this whale is discussed in detail by Manville and 

 Shanahan (1961, pp. 269-270). 



Family DELPHINIDAE (porpoises and dolphins) 



ATLANTIC DOLPHIN 



Delphinus delphis Linnaeus 



[Delphinics] delphis Linnaeus, Systema naturae, ed. 10, 1 : 77, 1758. 

 Type looality. — European seas. 



General distribution. — In western North Atlantic recorded from Iceland and 

 Woods Hole, Massachusetts, south to Bahama Islands and Jamaica. 



Description, — This is a small Cetacean, reaching a length of about 

 8 feet. The animal possesses a slender "beak" about 6 inches long, 

 which is sharply marked off from the sloping forehead by a deep 

 V-shaped groove. The mouth contains many sharp pointed teeth that 

 interlock perfectly and are adapted for catching and holding the 

 fish upon which the dolphin preys. In coloration, this species is 

 blackish dorsally, including the dorsal surfaces of the flukes and 

 pectoral apendages. The sides shade in coloration to a grayish green, 

 mixed with eliptical bands of whitish on the flanks. The abdomen is 

 white and there is a whitish band over the forehead with a narrow 

 black band in the center that connects the black eye rings. Often there 

 is a black band from the snout to the leading edge of the pectoral fin. 



Marlyamd records. — No records of strandings of this species are 

 available from Maryland, but Charles O. Handley, Jr., says (unpub- 

 lished manuscript) : "In September 1959, Mike Freeman of Washing- 

 ton, D.C., told me of having seen two kinds of porpoises in unusual 

 abundance off Ocean City, Md., and rimning the Ocean City Inlet into 

 Sinepuxent Bay. His descriptions indicated Tursiops truncatus and 

 Delphinus delphis.'''' 



This cetacean is probably one of the most abundant in Maryland 

 waters, but it prefers deeper waters off shore, and hence is less likely 

 to strand than several other less numerous species. 



BOTTLE-NOSED PORPOISE 



Tursiops truncatus (Montague) 



Delphinus truncatus Montague, Mem. Wermerian Nat. Hist. Soc, 

 3 : 75, 1821. 



