Dolphin
a cetaceous animal, forming the type of a family (Delphinidæ) which includes also the porpoises and narwhal. Dolphins are cosmopolite animals inhabiting every sea from the equator to the poles; they are gregarious, and swim with extraordinary velocity.
The common dolphin measures from 6 to 10 feet in length, has a long sharp snout with numerous nearly conical teeth in both jaws; its flesh is coarse, rank, and disagreeable, but is used by the Laplanders as food. It lives on fish, mollusca, etc. The animal has to come to the surface at short intervals to breathe. The blow-hole is of a semilunar form, with a kind of a valvular apparatus, and opens on the vertex, nearly over the eyes. The structure of the ear renders the sense of hearing very acute.
One or two young are produced by the female, who suckles and watches them with great care.
The name is also comwith great care. The name is also com- monly but improperly given to a fish, Coryphæna hippuris, a member of the mackerel family, the beauty of whose colors when dying has been much celebrated by poets. They abound within the tropics.