FRIENDLY PORPOISE

ANOTHER PELORUS JACK ,' /A black and pale, grey porpoise has •takfifi up"'*its abode , "iri '.the ' Hikapu Reach, Pelorous Sound, and regularly visits launches and .plays about the bows in the manner of the famous. Pelorus Jack which lived near the entrance to the same sound and was last seen; -in 1912. .Dr. W, R. B. Oliver, director -of the Dominion Museum, who visited the Sounds last week, saw the. porpoise. It had -been in the vicinity for some months past, he said, and the local people knew it well. "The porpoise is a much smaller animal than was the original grey dolphin, Pelorus Jack," said Dr." Oliver. "It-is, however, of considerable interest, and if it remains in the area it has selected might appropriately be given the title of Pelorus Jack 11. "This porpoise is pale grey all over, except the flukes, dorsal fin, a cre-scent-shaped mark (concavity forward) near the blowhole, and a broad band on either side between mouth .arid fins, all of these parts being black; The scientific name of the species is cephalorhynchus hectori, and the Pelorus Sound animal is a variety of this species, which has relatives in South America and the Cape seas. This group of coastal porpoises !can*be recognised '. by the ' dorsal fin being rounded and the snout blunt. There is no beak as in nearly all the dolphins. Strangely e"nbugh,: a South American ally has a piebald form differing,- however, from the New Zealand, variety, though in both the-back-ground is whitish and the fail arid fins are black." Dr. Oliver said he hoped that launch owners passing through Hikapu Reach .would do all in their power to* prevent harm coming to this interesting animal which had spontaneously entered into assbciation with man. Possibly, piebald porpoises had been seen off the New Zealand coast previously, he said, and he would be glad to hear from anyone who had sighted them. The famous grey dolphin of Cook Strait which the Maoris called Kai-kai-a-waro and the pakeha Pelorus. Jack, was the subject of many fanciful legends among the Natives who lived on the South Island shores near his haunts and for a Jong time there was much speculation as to what manner of beast he ■ was. For years he was accustomed to "meet and frisk around steamers approaching the entrance from Cook Strait to the French Pass on their way from Wellington to Nelson and was well known to crews and passengers. Pelorus Jack seldom, if ever, entered the pass; his beat was outside. He disappeared in 1912 and it was believed that he was struck and killed by one- of the propellers of the twinscrew steamer Arahura as he played about her. Pelorus Jack was one of the few living" creatures to have an Order in Council passed protecting his life. This was done after stories circulated in 1904 that someone had tried toharm the popular dolphin.