June, 1905. 



The Irish Naturalist. 



121 



BOTTLK-NOSED DOI.PHINS IN DUBLIN BAY. 



BY R. F. SCHARFF, PH.D., F.I,.S. 



(Pirate 4.) 



When I wrote a short account on the Irish Cetacea^ five 

 years ago, I mentioned (p. 90) that the onl}^ certain record of 

 the Bottle-nosed Dolphin {Tursiops tursio) having occurred in 

 Irish waters was that mentioned by Bell, according to whom 

 a specimen had been taken on the south coast in 1829. Mr. 

 M'Cabe, of the South City Markets, in Dublin, informed me, 

 on the 29th April last, that two young whales had been cap- 

 tured the night before in salmon nets set near the mouth of 

 the River Liffey. Mr. Nichols and I went to examine them 

 at once, and identified them as Bottle-nosed Dolphins; clearly 

 the species is of great rarity on the Irish coast. 



Both specimens were females, one being 10 feet 6 inches 

 long, and the other a little smaller. They were of a uniformly 

 dark slaty-grey colour above, including the flippers, and 

 underneath of a dirty white. The white colour extended in 

 a narrow strip along about half of the upper jaw, while the 

 anterior portion of the lower jaw was grey. There were 

 forty- two teeth in the lower and forty-six in the upper jaw. 



I herewith give a figure of one of the specimens, and may 

 point out at the same time that it difi'ers to some extent from 

 the only other drawing published of an Irish Bottle-nosed 

 Dolphin. The late Dr. Gray had in his possession a drawing 

 made by Robert Templeton of the Irish specimen obtained 

 in 1829, and referred to above. This he reproduced in his 

 paper.^ To judge from this drawing, which evidently repre- 

 sents a Bottle-nosed Dolphin, it would seem as if the extent 

 to which the white colour invades the head region is variable. 

 The head is almost entirely white in this specimen. Then, 

 again, in Prof. Flower's figure of the same species,^ the whole 

 of the lower jaw is coloured white. 



Irish Natiu alist^ vol ix., I9CX), pp. 83-91. 

 * Annals of Natural History, vol. xvii., 1846. 

 ' Trans. Zool. Soc. London, vol. xi., 1885, plate i, fig. 2, 



A 



