(584 DEL 
vation ; and, though Miller affirms that the davefacre 
requires no other treatment than the common larktpur, 
yet we frequently find that the plants committed to the 
open air without protection in our climate are killed in 
fevere feafons. 
DELPtll'NUS, f. [SsAipnio;, from A chtpoc, a city in 
Greece, near which they abounded ; or from sby ddcph, 
Heb.] In ichthyology, the Dolphin; a genus of fiffies 
belonging to the. order of cete: the generic character is, 
teetli in both jaws. The body is long, without fcales, 
and has but four fins, two pectorals, a dorfal, and one ;it 
the tail. The male has the generative organ, and the 
female lias teats to fuckle her young, which ulually fol¬ 
low Her till they have attained their full fize. They 
bring forth once a-year; are carniVorous, often come in 
llioals to the top of the water, and feem to be fporting 
with each other. The flefh has an oily take; they are 
eaten confequently by fuch only as like that favour. Oil 
is drawn from them. Of this fiffi there are four fpecies. 
In reviewing the different tribes of cetaceous tidies, we 
find them, in proportion as they diminidi in fize, growing 
kill more aftive and voracious. The fiffies of this genus, 
which comprehends in it three different families, that of 
the dolphin, the grampus, and porpoife, are all much 
lets in bulk than the common whale. They have all 
fins upon the back, and, like the red: of the whale kind, 
they have heads difproportioned in fize to the red; of the 
body. Each of the fpecies has both jaws armed with for¬ 
midable teeth ; for nature has not conferred upon them 
an extraordinary voracity, without bellowing the means 
of gratifying it. 
From their great agility, the fidies of this genus are not 
frequently taken. They feldom remain a moment above 
water; fometimes, indeed, their too eager purfuits cxpofe 
them to danger ; and a flioal of herrings allures them out 
of their depth. In this fituation, the wretched animal 
continues to bounce and flounder in the diallow water, 
till it is knocked on the head, or till the returning tide 
again comes to its relief. The porpoifes are often allured 
up the Thames in this manner, till they are furrotinded 
with boats, from which the fifliermen ffioot them with 
fire-arms. 
In their internal drufture thefe animals refemble qua¬ 
drupeds, and the other cetaceous fidies. Conception is 
begun by the introduftion of femen, and after ten months 
a perfeft animal is produced. They bring forth their 
young only in the hummer feafon; in the month of Ofto- 
ber the foetus has been extracted from a dolphin but 
newly begun to form. The longevity of thefe fidies was 
computed by Aridotle to be upwards of thirty years. 
The method praftifed to afeertain it, feems but an auk- 
ward one : it was, by cutting off a part from the tail-fin, 
and returning the animal to the fea; and if the fiffi. hap¬ 
pened afterwards to be taken, its age was gtiefled at from 
that circumfiance. 
i. Delphinus phocena, the porpoife. The blunt fnout, 
and diarp teeth, form the fpecific character. The body 
is diort, thick upwards, but tapering towards tiie tail. 
The fnout projects, and it is probably from the fliape of 
the nof.e that this fifli has obtained its name, which,' in 
Italian, German, French, and Latin, fignifies J'wine-fi/k, 
01 -fca-kog. Above the head is a crefcent-lhaped aperture, 
through which it fpouts out water forwards. The eyes 
are near the aperture of the mouth ; they are finall, with 
a black pupil furrotinded by a white iris. Behind the 
eyes is a round hole, which is the organ of hearing; and 
fronting this hole, not far from the 'muzzle, are the nof- 
trils, which are but final 1 .- The fides are brown; the 
belly white. Behind the navel is a (lit, wherein the 
penis lies concealed ; farther back is the. anus. The fin 
of the tail is not horizontal, as in the whale. The fkin 
is even, thin, but of a horny fubftance ; under this lies 
the lard or fat, from one to three inches thick. Some 
nations ext raft oil from it ; at Newfoundland they make 
puddings of the flefh. This fpecies is found in alnioft 
DEL 
all feas ; and is very plenty about the Britiffi ifles. They 
will grow nine or ten yards long. Small ones are fome¬ 
times caught in rivers and lakes, driven by ftorms or 
over-eagernefs in purfuing their prey ; for in this they 
are extremely aftive, and fwim very fad: hence they 
are fometimes caught in the Thames. In the feafon of 
copulation they go in ffioals, from ten to fifteen males 
following one female ; at this time they are fo unguarded 
as often to run aground. They have commonly but one 
young at a time, which follows the mother as long as it 
fucks. They copulate in Augufi, and are then mod eafily 
taken ; they bring forth in June. The flefli of the por¬ 
poife has an oily tade ; but the Greenlanders eat it; and 
fo do the Scotch. The former regard it as excellent 
food : they boil or roadit, fird letting it hang like veni- 
fon till it dinks, to make it tender; they alfo eat the en¬ 
trails, fkin, and greafe ; they ufe the fat alfo to burn in 
their lamps ; they make purfe-nets of the gullet, and 
cords of the finews. Thus we fee how neceflity teaches 
fome people the ufe of what others rejeft ; for the Dutch 
and Danes ufe nothing but the fat, from which they make 
oil. The Norwegians and Laplanders, among whom thefe 
fifli abound, find them very good food. In Scotland, they 
fait and fmoke them. 
The porpoife in fwimming, always bends the head and 
tail downwards; fo that, when is riles to the furface, 
only the back is feen ; but it becomes flrait when it dies. 
Aridotle- fays that it deeps with its head above water, 
and fnores. It fometimes appears above water, like the 
other whale kind ; which feamen regard as the fign of a 
dorm. Aridotle fays they make a moaning noife when 
taken, and will live fix or eight hours out of water. It 
has been obferved, that, when a pregnant female is killed, 
the tail of the feetus appears through her navel; this can 
only arif'e from the fpafmodic throes of the mother in the 
agonies of death. Sometimes they turn in the water; 
and then they appear of a triangular form ; this is the 
time to flioot or dart at them ; but it mud be done at 
the infant they appear on the furface, for they plunge 
immediately. The brain of the porpoife is divided by a 
partition into two lobes, right and left, (not forward and 
backward, as Rondeletius affirms.) The bones of the 
pectoral fins are very remarkable ; when the fkin is re¬ 
moved, it exhibits all the bones in the arm and hand of 
a man. Some have infided alfo that the tail-fin exhibited 
the bones of the feet; but this, M. Bloch, after a very 
careful examination, could not difeover : this fin is lliort, 
did’, and horizontal. 
2. Delphinus delphis, the dolphin. Specific charafter, 
body oblong, roundifli ; fnout narrow, ffiarp. Concern¬ 
ing the figure of the dolphin, properly fo called, the ideas 
of the ancients were exceedingly erroneous. Upon their 
marbles and coins, they are uniformly defigned of a crook¬ 
ed form : from the delcriptions.of the poets, it appears 
that they entertained the fame inaccurate notion of the 
fliape of this animal. Before a dorm the dolphins are 
oblerved to be in great commotion, and frequently to 
leap above the furface of the water. It is probably in 
this attitude, almod the only one in which they were 
then feen, that they have a crooked appearance to the 
eye. The natural fliape of the dolphin is almod draight, 
the back being very (lightly incurvated, and the body 
(lender. But it is not in the external form alone of the 
dolphin that the ancient writers were midaken : their 
philofophers and hidorians feem to have contended who 
lh'ould invent the mod extravagant fables concerning it. 
This fifli was celebrated in the earlied time for its fond- 
nefs of the human race.. It does not dread man, fays 
Pliny, as a dranger; but comes to meet him in the fliip, 
and to fport around the veffel: henceit was diftinguiflied 
by the epithets of boy-loving and phifanthropifl.-It was 
confecrated to the gods, and therefore was honoured with 
the title of facred fifli. Various are the.fervices w hich this 
race are faid to have performed to man. Aridotle fleers 
the cleared of all the ancients from thefe fables; but the 
elder 
