THE WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN 
Genus Lagenorhynchus. 
THE WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN. 
Lagenorhynchus aculiis, Gray. 
Plate 49. 
Two species of this genus (the Short-beaked Dolphins) characterised 
by their rounded heads, short beaks, and large number of vertebrae, occur 
occasionally in the British Islands. 
The White-sided Dolphin attains a length of 6 to 8 feet when 
fully grown, the males being larger than the females. The dorsal fin 
is high and falcate, the flippers pointed and scimitar-shaped. The 
body is compact and stout, but much compressed where it joins the 
flukes of the tail. 
My friend Mr. Pycraft has kindly supplied me with some notes 
and sketches taken from freshly killed specimens received at the British 
Museum of Natural History, from which, with the help of a cast of the 
animal in the Gallery, I have drawn the figure in the Plate and described 
the colour. 
According to Mr. Pycraft, the " beak and upper surface of the 
head are dull black, edge of upper jaw (the 'tip') shading into dull 
greyish white towards the gape. A broad belt of black encircles the 
eye, and from this there runs forward a narrow black line to terminate 
at about the posterior one third of the rostral groove. 
" Below this line, the white of the flanks and side of the head 
runs forward to form a narrow wedge interrupted in front of the eye 
93 
