The bottlenose dolphin, a toothed whale, is beautifully depicted in this 18th century watercolor. The toothed beak, flipper, blowhole, dorsal fin and fluke are identified and captioned with delicate Japanese caligraphy.

The species is protected in U.S. waters by the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The worldwide bottlenose dolphin population is substantial, but is near depletion in some regions.

This highly adaptable dolphin may be the best known cetacean because television's "Flipper" was a bottlenose as are many dolphins in marine parks and research facilities. The bottlenose is the dolphin most typically seen along the shores of the United States.