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Show 684 DR. D. J. CUNNINGHAM ON [June 20, The white of the snout passes up so as to encircle the eye; a faintly marked streak passes in a horizontal direction from above the eye along the flank, and ends in front of the dorsal fin, whilst the body behind the dorsal fin appears to be white. Van Beneden's own description of the Dolphin, which is framed from an examination of two female specimens caught by the fishermen of Ostend, one of which measured 7 feet in length, is as follows :- "The head is prolonged into a sort of beak. From the base of the beak, the head, the back, all the dorsal fin, the base of the tail and upon the side, to the middle of the flanks, the skin is of a beautiful black ; also the caudal fin and a great part of the pectoral fin. The beak, or that part of the snout which rises abruptly, is of a yellowish white. The entire lower surface of the body is of a shining white. But what, in the markings, seems to characterize this species best, independently of the pale colour of the beak, is a white band which stretches upon the sides parallel to the vertebral column, commencing above the eyes and becoming lost, below the anterior border of the dorsal fin, in the white colour of the abdomen. It follows from this that the body is white below, upon the side of the abdomen and tail, and that an equally white band is present upon the side of the back." Then in the following page he states that " the lower jaw projects almost an inch beyond the upper." But this description does not agree with the plate which accompanies it. As I have mentioned, the latter represents an animal in which the whole posterior part of the body is of a light colour, and in which the jaws are of equal length *, whilst in the letterpress (p. 28) we find it clearly stated that " the back, dorsal fin, and caudal fin are of a beautiful black," and that the lower jaw projects an inch beyond the upper. The author makes no reference to the position of the dorsal fin ; and we are therefore left to infer its situation from the drawing. The memoir also contains an elaborate account of the skeletal peculiarities of this species. The vertebrae are from 90 to 94 in number; and the atlas and axis are anchylosed, whilst the other five cervical vertebrae are free and possess thin overlapping transverse processes. He states that in both specimens the dentition was ~ ; Lilljeborg quotes it as ^, Gray as ^, and Brightwell as 23. Now as it appears to me that Van Beneden's account of D. albirostris is the most reliable, I purpose making it the standard with which to compare the Great-Grimsby Dolphin, in order to determine whether or not it belongs to this species. But in making this comparison, it must be borne in mind that the semicartilaginous state of some of its bones, the characters of the skull, and the bristles on the snout, all contributed to show that the Great-Grimsby specimen had not nearly reached adult life. * I do not refer to the drawing of the skull, which he also gives. This shows a greater length of the inferior than the superior jaw. |
