Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/34

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THE ZOOLOGIST

teeth are small and curved, and vary in number from 23 to 25 on each side of both jaws. This species, like the last-named, is easily distinguished by its colour, which is deep purplish black above; while the nose and a well-defined line along the upper jaw, as well as the whole of the lower jaw and belly, are cream-colour, varied in parts with chalk-white, which contrasts finely with the deep black colour of the back. This Dolphin also inhabits the North Atlantic, but does not appear to be common. Only three or four specimens have been met with on the east coast of England.

It is not a little remarkable that the number of species of Whales and Dolphins which have been ascertained to have occurred on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland is in excess of what has been recorded for the European Continent. This, no doubt, is owing to the fact of their remains having been more carefully collected and identified, and more attention given to the study of these animals by English than by continental naturalists.

The late Dr. Gray, who made a special study of the order Cetacea, published several articles on the species frequenting or occurring in the British Islands, to which the reader should refer. In 'The Annals and Magazine of Natural History' for 1846 (vol. xvii., p. 82), he gave a list of the British Cetacea containing seventeen species which he had the opportunity of personally examining, either entire or in osteological fragments sufficient to enable him to determine them. In the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for 1847 (p. 117), he printed some additional observations on the subject; and in the volume of 'Proceedings' of the same Society for 1864, he published a paper "On the Cetacea which have been observed in the Seas surrounding the British Islands," in which he attempted to condense all the original matter in the various antecedently published works on the British Whales and Dolphins, and gave the results of his examination of all the specimens he could collect. This paper is illustrated with figures of the more characteristic bones. In 'The Zoologist' for 1873 (pp. 3357–3364 and 3421–3433) he published a "Catalogue of the Whales and Dolphins inhabiting or incidentally visiting the Seas surrounding the British Islands." To all of these articles, as well as to the more recent papers and monographs by Prof. Flower in the' Proceedings' and 'Transactions' of the Zoological Society, the reader would do well to refer. Nor