In Scottish waters it has been taken in the Forth, in 1887,1 off Mull,2 and
according to Mr. R. Service in the Solway in 1872.8 In 1895 a boy hooked one
ashore at Urafirth Voe, Shetland, and he and his sister killed it with a stone:
it measured 5 ft. 8 % in. and is preserved in the Anatomical Museum, Edinburgh.4
In 1897 one was captured in the Moray Firth,6 and in February 1898 a female
and a young one were secured in the Tay.6
H abits.—The Common Dolphin is well known to travellers in the Atlantic
and Mediterranean; the ‘ schools ’ are fond of following large vessels and of playing
round the bows, their agile and graceful leaps being always delightful to watch.
Dolphins are capable of considerable speed; I have seen them keep up with the
‘ City of Rome’ when she was steaming at the rate of eighteen knots. In the
Mediterranean very large numbers of Dolphins are frequently seen at one time;
I have counted at least two hundred individuals, but they generally keep in small
schools which do not mix with one another.
The Common Dolphin feeds on mackerel, herring, and other fish, as well as
upon cephalopods and crustaceans. An example taken near Corsica was found to
have been feeding upon several species of cuttle— ‘ Enoploteuthis margaritifera,
Riippell (four specimens), Chiroteuthis veranyi, d’Orbigny (three specimens), Loligo
vulgaris, Lamarck, Todarodes sagittatus, Steenstrup, Onychoteuthis lichtensteini,
F£russac, Heteroteuthis disbar, Gray (?), and three examples of a new species which
Prof. Joubin has described and figured (“ Bull. Soc. Zool. France,” tome xix. 1894,
p. 64) under the name of Ctenopteryx cyfirinoides, and which appears to be allied
to Ctenopteryx fim briatus, described by the Norwegian zoologist Appelof.’ 7
The young Common Dolphins, at birth, are said to have from five to seven
hairs on each side of the upper lip.
1 Trans. Roy. Phy. Soc. Edin. vol. ix. p. 346 (1887); .
3 Ibid. 1896, p. 210. * Ibid. 1896, p. 1.
6 Ibid. 1899, p. 108.
9 Ann. Scot. Nat. H ist. 1893, p. 112.
5 Ibid. 1898, p. 47.
7 Harting, Zoologist, Match 1895.
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