Dolphin

Dolphin, a book name for any of the Delphinidee, a universally distributed family of marine and fluviatile toothed Cetaceans. The True Dolphins constitute the genus Delphinus, in which the jaws, closely set with minute teeth, are produced into a pointed snout or beak. The single blow-hole is crescent-shaped, the pectoral limbs are narrow and pointed, and a dorsal fin is generally present. The genus has the range of the family, and no species exceeds 10 feet in length. The Common Dolphin (D. delphis), often miscalled the "Porpoise," is from 6 feet to 8 feet long, greenish black above and white below. They are very active and gregarious, and are often met with at sea gambolling round the bows of ships. They feed on fish, jelly-fish, and crustaceans, and their flesh Was formerly considered a delicacy. This species is noted in classic mythology, and is borne as a heraldic charge. [Coryphene.] D. tursio, the Bottle-nose Dolphin, has the beak less prolonged; D. albirostris and D. leucopleurus, the White-beaked and White-sided Dolphins, occur in the North Atlantic; D. sinensis, from the Chinese seas, is milky-white; and a species from the South Seas (D. peronii) has no dorsal fin. [Beluga, Caaing Whale, Grampus, Narwhal, Porpoise.]