water immediately below Prome, where the course of the river is. well Refined
by high banks. On my second voyage, although a constant outlook was kept,
dolphins were not met with until the steamer had reached Yenanyoung, about
one hundred miles ahove Prome. After the first dolphins had been encountered,
they were seen almost daily in the deep reaches of the river as far as our destination,
Bhamô, which is about 550 miles in a straight line from the sea, and about
800 miles by the windings of the river. TheTapeng, which flows down from the
high Chinese valleys to the east of Bhamô,* joins the Irawady about a mile above
the town, and at the mouth of the Tapeng many dolphins of all ages are generally to
be seen disporting themselves in the long deep reach of the Irawady that occurs there.
But during the rains, when thé Tapeng and the other .affluents of the great Burmese
river, such as the Khyendwen and Shuaylee, are in flood, they are ascended by these
dolphins. They are also numerous in the deep channels of the lower and middle
defiles, and indeed may be generally observed in the majority of the deep reaches.
The Shans of Upper Burma assert that the dolphins are not to he found beyond a
point thirty miles above Bhamô, where the course of the river is interrupted by
rocks, and which they style Babine, or Dolphin Point, from the circumstance that,
according to them, it is the residence of certain Ndts, who there impose so heavy
a toll on dolphins as to deter them from proceeding upwards.
Brom very exhaustive reports forwarded to me hy the Officers of the Burma
Commission, in reply to a circular I had issued asking for information regarding the
distribution of Cetacea in the rivers of Burma, it would appear that two species are
met with, one a round-headed dolphin which is ■ essentially fluviatile, and another
with a longish snout which frequents the estuaries and is probably a Steno. ■ The
former seems restricted to the Irawady, in which it has the distribution I have just
indicated ; while the other enters all the estuaries, from Akyah to Mergui, which
are of sufficient depth to admit it, and what appears to be this form has been
observed at Rangoon, and in the estuary of the Sittang large schools are not of
unfrequent occurrence.
Habits.—The Irawady dolphin has much the characters of its marine fellows,
being generally seen in small schools which frequently accompany the river
steamers, careering in front and alongside of them, as is the custom of dolphins of
the sea. Occasionally, however, a solitary individual may he observed, but this is
the exception, as two or three are usually associated together, hence this may be
considered as a gregarious form. In the defile below Bhamô, where the river runs
for ten miles over a deep hed 40 to 60 fathoms in depth and from 200 to 500
yards in width, and defined by high, wooded hills on either side, numerous troops
of dolphins may be observed passing up and down, rising every minute or two to the
surface to emit the short blowing sound, which ends in the more feeble one of
inspiration, and all night through this sound may be heard.. They never leave the
deep water, and when they rise to breathe (which they do in periods varying from
70 to 150 seconds, although occasionally exceeded) the blow-hole is first seen, then
at the end of inspiration the head disappears and the back comes into view,
and is gradually exposed as far as the dorsal fin, but the tail flippers are rarely
visible. The act of breathing is rapid, so much so indeed that it requires a very
expert marksman to take aim and fire before the animal disappears. I have observed
some of them disporting themselves in a way that has never yet been recorded of
Cetacea, as far as I am aware. They swam with a rolling motion near the surface,
with their heads half out of the water, and every now and then nearly fully exposed,
when they ejected great volumes of water out of their mouths, generally straight
before them, but sometimes nearly vertically. The sight of this curious habit at
once recalled to me an incident in my voyage up the river when I had been quite
baffled to explain an exactly similar appearance seen at a distance, so that this
remarkable habit would appear to be not uncommonly manifested. On one occasion
I noticed an individual standing upright in the water, so much so that one-half
of its pectoral fins was exposed, producing the appearance against the background
as if the animal was supported on its flippers. I t suddenly disappeared, and again,
a little in advance of its former position, it bobbed up in the same attitude, and this
it frequently repeated. The Shan boatmen who were with me seemed to connect
these curious movements with the season—spring—in which the dolphins breed.
Food.—The food of the Irawady dolphin is apparently exclusively fish.
The fishermen believe that the dolphin purposely draws fish to their nets, and
each fishing village has its particular guardian dolphin which receives a name common
to all the fellows of his school; and it is this superstition which makes it so
difficult to obtain specimens of this Cetacean. Colonel Sladen has told me that suits
are not unfrequently brought into the Native Courts to recover a share in the
capture of fish, in which a plaintiff’s dolphin has heen held to have filled the nets of
a rival fisherman.
Buccal comity.—At the angle of the mouth the buccal cavity is closed by a well-
marked fringe or fold of the lining membrane opposite to the root of the tongue
and marking the point at which the skin-coloured palatal surface ceases. This fpld
has the appearance as if it were able to shut off the true buccal cavity from thp
portion immediately posterior and which is chiefly subservient to respiration. This
arrangement and the circumstance that the teeth are ground down to flat surfaces
would seem to indicate that the animals crush their food, and the presence of this
fold may also account for the curious and remarkable habit mentioned above, as it
would by shutting off the pharyngeal cavity permit of the mouth being filled with
water. The base of the tongue opposite to the fold is defined by a concentric furrow
backwardly directed, the two opposite extremities of which correspond to the angles
of the mouth. In this furrow there are the large patulous orifices of racemose
glands as in O. brevirostris. Posterior to the furrow, scattered over the floor and walls
of the fauces, there are numerous minute orifices of racemose glands. Occupying a
similar position to these structures, but confined chiefly to the middle of the tongue,
there are many transverse fine wavy lines of different lengths, but not exceeding half
an inch, while their breadth is about one-fortieth of an inch. To the touch they
have a gritty feel, but in appearance they are wavy and moniliform, as if they were