CLASS MAMMALIA. 



203 



FIG. 351. 



Skull of a Sperm-whale. 

 Phy se 1 ter ma cro ceph' a lus. 



larly abrupt snout with blow-holes in front. An immense 

 cavity in the head is filled with cells containing an oil 

 which hardens into 

 spermaceti. Ambergris 

 (am'ber gres) is found in 

 the intestines in masses 

 of thirty or forty pounds. 

 The food of the Sperm- 

 whale consists chiefly 

 of cephalopod mollusks. 

 To procure these it is 

 said to descend into the 

 water with its immense lower jaw hanging down almost 

 perpendicularly. When a sufficient number are collected 

 in the mouth, the jaw closes and the morsels are swal- 

 lowed. 



The Greenland Whale being the one most sought by 

 whalemen, is also known as the Rigid-whale. Its huge 

 mouth is cleft to the depth of ten feet, with a breadth 



of six or eight.* The upper jaw, 

 instead of teeth, has slabs of whale- 

 bone (baleen) hanging freely, about 

 an inch apart. There are often as 

 many as three hundred of these on 

 each side, and the longest some- 

 times measures ten feet ; 11 ic outer 

 edges being smooth and solid, the inner fringed with 

 fibers. In feeding, the whale moves rapidly forward near 

 the surface of the water, not with open mouth, but with 

 its lower lip dropped down, leaving the baleen exposed. 



* Curiously, the throat opening out of this enormous cavity will hardly 

 admit the entrance of the two fingers. As the whale has no teeth, it can there- 

 fore eat only very small animals. 



FIG. 352. 



Baleen. 



