PORPOISES AND DOLPHINS. 
61 
This species appears to rano-e over all temperate and tropical seas, 
Distribution. 1 . 1 1 . & 1 1 
being occasionally met with on the British coasts. An example was 
taken at Holyhead in the autumn of 1868; a second was stranded in 1888 on the 
coast of Kirkcudbrightshire; while two entered the river Humber in 1889. 
Till recently very little was known as to the habits of this species, 
but the establishment of a fishery for its capture at Hatteras, in North 
Carolina, has enabled Mr. F. W. True to gather some information on this subject. 
It appears that these dolphins are abundant off the coasts of Hatteras, and associate 
in schools of considerable size. On the 19th of May fourteen of these animals were 
secured at one haul of the nets in the morning, while in the afternoon of the same 
Habits. 
day no less than sixty-six were taken. In the spring the schools generally comprise 
a nearly equal number of individuals of each sex, and include animals of all ages; 
but later on in the season they are more uniform as regards sex and age, some 
herds consisting only of old males. It is believed that these dolphins migrate 
northward in the spring, and southward in the autumn, although a few remain at 
BOTTLE-NOSED DOLPHIN. 
(From True, Bulletin of the U.S. National Museum, 1889.) 
Hatteras throughout the year. The breeding-season commences in the spring, 
but in the more northerly districts appears to be continued on into the summer. 
When the old ones were captured in the nets, the young would remain close 
alongside. 
The largest specimen caught at Hatteras measured 12 feet in length and 
yielded twenty-four gallons of oil; but the average product during the winter is 
only about eight gallons. Some idea of the number of these dolphins frequenting 
the Carolina seas may be gathered from the fact that between 15th November 1884 
and the middle of the following May, no less than twelve hundred and sixty-eight 
of them were caught at Hatteras. 
The Rough-Toothed Dolphins. 
Genus Steno. 
The rough-toothed dolphin (Steno frontatus), from the Indian and Atlantic 
oceans, is the representative of a genus comprising several more or less nearly 
allied species, mostly confined to the warmer seas. They are distinguished by the 
great length of the beak, which is distinctly marked off from the head, and in the 
dried skull is very narrow and compressed; and also by the length of the bony 
