CLASS MAMMALIA.
83
In most of the drawings of the skull of this animal, the
teeth are represented as truncated. This is no doubt the
result of wear, and is incidental to age. In all the individuals
examined by myself, the teeth were sharp, and slightly
directed inwards and backwards, except one of the males
caught at Fingringhoe, which had the truncated teeth, before
alluded to as indicative of age. I had the opportunity of
examining the stomach of one captured at Harwich. It
was nearly empty, but contained some of the ear-
bones (otoliths) of the Gadidae. I recognised those of the
cod, the haddock, and what appeared to be those of the
whiting.
The species must be easy to kill, as this one was caught by
a cod-hook in the lip. Some of the others mentioned above
were destroyed by a charge of small shot.
Delphinus albirostris, Gray. White-beaked Dolphin.
As I have elsewhere recorded (Zool., 1889, p. 382, and
Essex Nat., vol. iii., p. 169), a school, consisting of seven, or
possibly nine, individuals of this rare cetacean, was seen
in the Colne, on the nth of September, 1889, when five
of them were captured. Some were shot with rifles, while
one was driven aground and killed by a sailor with his
pocket-knife. The remarkable white beak and sides attracted
the attention of the Colne fishermen ; but I could not learn
that any one of them had ever before seen a similarly-marked
specimen. I therefore consider this species to be very rare
on our coast.
[A view of the Estuary of the Blackwater, as seen
from West Mersea, in the neighbourhood of which not
a few cetaceans have, from time to time, been driven
ashore, appears facing page 90. It is drawn by Major Bale,
of Colchester].