316 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
1870, was also caught in a mackerel net, we may infer it was in 
pursuit of these fish. It groaned when caught and when dying. 
In Bell’s British Quadrupeds three British specimens are re- 
corded, which, with one since, will make this the fifth example. 
Mr. Henry Newman, of Leominster, has kindly furnished me 
with Risso’s original description, of which the following is a 
translation : 
“‘Delphinus Risso. Blower or Spouter. Back broad; head 
large; blunt. Upper jaw the longest. 
‘The disposition of this Cetacean appears to be gentle, like the 
temperate zone which it inhabits. It only frequents our shores 
(Nice) at the pairing season. Its body is elongated, roundish, 
swelling up towards the front, insensibly -diminishing in size 
towards the tail, which is compressed. 
“The skin is thin, of a grey colour, clouded, bluish, and 
traversed by irregular marks and whitish lines, straight and 
crooked. The belly is of a dull white; the head very large, with 
a blunt, round muzzle, rising in a curve, pierced towards the neck 
by the blowhole; the mouth is large, curved. The upper jaw, 
provided with sockets only, is more prominent, and covers the 
lower, which is armed on each side by five large teeth, conical, 
pointed, and a little curved, separate, and strongly embedded in the 
bone of the jaw—these teeth are solid, nearly equal, of a yellowish 
white, and covered by a very shining enamel. The interior of 
the throat is covered with blunt tubercles. The tongue is free, 
with smooth sides. The eyes are oval, oblong, very small, with 
golden irides. 
“The dorsal fin, high and pointing upwards, nearly in the shape 
of scalene triangle. It is placed nearly in the middle of the 
back. The flippers are large, sword-shaped, and blackish. The 
tail is strong, divided into two large lobes by a definite notch. 
“Length, three metres. 
“ Large? (sic), one metre. 
“Found on the surface of the water in spring and autumn.”3 
1M. Risso by tail probably means the part just anterior to the caudal fin. 
This is markedly compressed, being nearly three times as deep as thick. 
2 I can only understand by Risso’s ‘“‘large” that he meant the depth 
from top of dorsal fin. The circumference of our example—which, allowing 
it to be a little deeper than broad, would give a depth for the body of 
twenty-one inches, to which add fourteen, height of dorsal fin—would give 
thirty-five inches as the depth of the individual ; this would be about right. 
3 Risso’s Natural History of South Europe, vol. iii. p. 23. 
