Dolphin
dol'fin, an open sea animal. It is not a fish. It belongs to a family of land animals that have lived in the sea so long that they are not fit to be out of it. It is warm-blooded, it suckles its young, and breathes air. Both jaws are well filled with teeth. It feeds chiefly on fish. At times the dolphin annoys the herring fishers. It has many of the characteristics of the seal, but is more closely related to the whale, and still more so to the porpoise. There are many species--at least twelve in American waters. The common dolphin is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean and the temperate parts of the Atlantic. It is about six feet long, black above, and white beneath. It has a narrow nose and a long pair of jaws. Because of this the French call the dolphin goosebeak and goose of the sea. A single nostril is situated on the top of the head. The dolphins are noted for graceful movements. They travel in schools. When they see a ship a mile or two away they come racing through the waves as if glad to see someone. They gambol and dive about the ship as if to please the passengers with their graceful capers.
In Greek mythology, the dolphin had the reputation of becoming familiarly attached to man. Apollo is represented as riding a dolphin and playing his flute. A thick body, tapering toward a fin-shaped tail, the suppression of the hind limbs and the reduction of the front limbs to fin-like flippers, as well as a fin-like appendage on the back, give all the members of the family the appearance of a fish. A large open sea fish of the tropics, remarkable for rapid changes of color when taken out of the water, has been confused with the dolphin. Byron has fallen into this error:
Parting day
Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues With a new color, as it gasps away, The last still loveliest, till 'tis gone--and all is gray.