Volume 16, Plate XXIII / Mammalia (Mammals)

Common Dolphin

Delphinus Communis

Six to seven feet long, black on the back, greyish on the flanks and white beneath with a satiny glistening, it has a heart-shaped pupil, equal jaws, and a hundred and eighty-eight slender interlocking teeth. Among the most ravenous of its order, it navigates in numerous troops, springs vigorously and shoots ahead of vessels, and feeds on medusae and fishes through the European seas, Atlantic and Mediterranean.