Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.8508
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Bottlenose dolphin
Date
1787
Creator
William Bell (British) , Surgeon
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 213mm
width (painting): 287mm
width (painting): 287mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Plate 18 for the paper “Observations on the structure and oeconomy of whales”, by John Hunter, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society vol. 77 part 1 1787 pp.371-450. Two views of an animal described by Hunter as a bottle-nose whale or Delphinus delphis [the latter is the present name of the short-beaked common dolphin]. The main figure shows the animal’s right side, with a water spout indicating the position of the blowhole; a detail of the head and one fin seen from above shows the blowhole itself. The specimen, apparently a juvenile, was caught in the sea off Berkeley in Gloucestershire [presumably in the Severn Estuary] “where it had been seen for several days, following its mother, and was taken with the old one…” Hunter’s pupil Edward Jenner secured it and sent it to John Hunter. Numbered “III”. Not signed.
Associated place