Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A history of British quadrupeds, including the Cetacea / by Thomas Bell. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![uttered loud cries when they came ashore, so as to alarm the whole neighbourhood. One preserved in the Town Museum at Nice is labelled as having been taken there in June, 1855. In general form Risso's Grampus, according to Prof. Flower, closely resembles the Pilot-Whale {Glohicephalus melas). The forehead is rounded, with no proper beak ; but the thick projecting upper-lip is separated by a hollow from the convexity of the head. The flippers are long and narrow, and the dorsal-fin high and falcate. As already mentioned the colour is extremely variable in this species, being either black above and white below, or clear grey, passing into black on the posterior parts, and into white on the belly. But the most remarkable character of the colouration is the manner in which these ground-tints are marked by irregular lines and streaks, running in all directions without any definite pattern; when best developed, each of these lines has a narrow white centre and a black border. In the younger British specimen noted above, the flanks were marked with white stripes, vertically disposed and nearly symmetrical. The teeth are confined to the lower ]?iw, even in extreme youth, and vary from three to seven on each side, placed in the front part of the mandible. The number of vertebrae is sixty-eight and of ribs twelve pairs. Our illustration represents this example as figured in the plate published with Mr. Flower's paper. The following are some of the measurements of the adult female specimen described by Prof. Flower:— Ft. In. Total length in straight line 10 6 Prom upper lip to dorsal-fin . . . . . 3 11 ,, „ flipper 19 Height of dorsal-fin ...... 1 4 Length of flipper. ...... 1 llf Breadth of tail 2 5](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21910030_0478.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
