Identifier: americannaturalh02hornuoft (find matches)
Title: The American natural history : a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Hornaday, William Temple, 1854-1937
Subjects: Natural history -- North America
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's sons
Contributing Library: Gerstein - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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surface,frequently leaping clear of the water, arch their bodies,breathe quickly, and dive again. For a few yards, perhaps,they race along under water, but in plain view, then some leapout again. How easily they keep pace with the ship! Theirmastery of old Ocean is so complete that it is a wonderfulthing to see. Sometimes the animals are so near the ship that thespecies can be determined to a certainty, especially thosewhich are marked by light colors. However, it is no disgraceto any naturalist to declare his inability to say positivelywhat species is alongside. Dolphins are particularly fond of playing around thebow of a ship; but for some reason best known to themselves. DOLPHINS AT PLAY 153 they evince a decided preference for the out-thrusting bowof a saiHng ship, and are not attracted so much by the high,perpendicular cutwater of a steamer, with no bowsprit orjib-boom. A swift ocean steamship is not escorted very far, for sucha promenade soon becomes tiresome; but I have seen a
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Drawn liv .1. Carter Heard. THE COMMON DOLPHIN. school of these interesting creatures circle about a sailing shipand play around its cutwater for half an hour. It is a simplematter for an expert sailor to take a position on the martin-gale-guys of a ship, under the bowsprit, and harpoon a dol-phin; but to me it has never seemed like a fair thing to do. In North American waters there are about twelve speciesof dolphins, most of which are from G to 7 feet in length, and 154 WHALES AND PORPOISES but two or three species exceed 10 feet. The Short-BeakedDolphin of the Pacific is the most beautiful species. The Common Dolphin,^ of the Atlantic Ocean, may wellbe taken as the type of the family of true dolphins. It isthe species that is most frequently seen and the one that hasbeen longest known. It has a slender, cigar-shaped body, asmall head, and its beak is long and narrow. Its length isfrom Q)4 to 73^ feet, and in color it is dark gray above anddull white below. Dolphins generally feed u

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