412 Fishes. 
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THE POEPOISE. (Phoccena vulgaris.) 
The Porpoise is one of the cetacea, and nearly allied to 
the dolphin, but it has not the beaked snout of that 
animal. The length of the Porpoise, from the tip of the 
snout to the end of the tail, is from four to eight feet, 
and its girth about two feet and a half. The figure of 
the whole body is conical ; the colour of the back is 
deep blue, inclining to shining black: the sides are 
grey, becoming white below. The tail is crescent- 
shaped. There are only three fins, one on the back, 
and one on each shoulder. The eyes are very small. 
When the flesh is cut up, it looks very much like pork ; 
but although it was once considered a sumptuous article 
of food, and is said to have been occasionally introduced 
at the tables of the old English nobility, it certainly has 
a disagreeable flavour. Porpoises live on small fish, and 
appear generally in large shoals, particularly in the 
mackerel and herring seasons, at which time they do 
very great damage to fishermen, by breaking and destroy- 
ing the nets to get at their prey. Their motion in the 
water is a kind of circular leap ; they dive deep, but 
soon again rise up in order to breathe. They are so 
eager in the pursuit of their prey, that they sometimes 
ascend large rivers, and have even been seen above West- 
