THE DOLPHIN 129

the sword was in the duels of the past by the rival
suitors for a lady’s hand, and aver that narwhals are
occasionally seen engaged in friendly fencing matches
—which may or may not be true. At any rate, its
end is always worn and polished, so that it would seem
to be in constant use.

The dolphin himself, Delphinus delphis, is not in
the least like his heraldic presentment, so typically
shown in the lamps on the Thames Embankment.
He is dark on the back and satiny white beneath,
but not even in the agonies of death does he change
colour, though, like all other dead things, the body
becomes slightly phosphorescent during decompo-
sition. Like the porpoise, his flesh is good eating.
In tenderness and flavour dolphin is to porpoise what
lamb is to mutton. He is the common dolphin of
all seas, and the real original Heeros zcthys. He is not
a fish, but a carnivorous cetacean with interlocking
teeth, and a convex snout separated from the fore-
head by a furrow. He is larger than the porpoise,
averaging nine feet in length; and ‘he is one of the
swiftest mammals that swim. He is almost the
greediest ; his teeth enable him to seize his prey, but
not to nip it,and he swallows his foodalive and whole
like the rest of his family. He is the reputed foe of
the flying-fish, though the distinction really belongs
almost entirely to his fishy namesake, known other-
wise as the dorado.

_The porpoise, Phocena communis, is the most
familiar cetacean around our coasts. He is at once
distinguishable by his teeth, which are about twenty
in number and have compressed spade-shaped crowns.

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