318 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



of short plates at each end, the longest being in the 

 middle of either series. They are so long that when the 

 mouth is shut they lie back along its floor, their elas- 

 ticity straightening them when the mouth is opened. 

 It is to these horny plates that we referred when, in 

 our notice of the dugong, we said that we should later 

 describe a very exaggerated structure, somewhat similar 

 to the palate plate of that animal. The adult whalebone 

 whales are entirely devoid of teeth, though before birth 

 many minute calcified teeth are formed in each jaw. But 

 these are entirely absorbed and disappear before birth. 

 The brain is four or five times as massive as that of any 

 other animal. 



The Greenland whale is known as the " right " whale 

 because it is the right kind for the fishermen who seek 

 for whalebone and blubber. It ranges round the North 

 Pole, and is found on both sides of Greenland, and off 

 the coast of Labrador. In Behring Sea and the Sea of 

 Okhotsk its southern limit seems to be latitude 54. It 

 is possible, but very improbable, that a straggler may 

 have reached the British coast. 



Much has been mistakenly said about the " blowing " 

 and " spouting " of whales and other cetaceans. They 

 do not really send out water from their nostrils, but 

 only their breath when they breathe. They do not, of 

 course, breathe rapidly as do land animals, since they 

 require to come to the surface to do so. This is the 

 reason why the tail is expanded horizontally in whales 

 and mermaids. That shape helps them thus to rise by 

 striking with the tail, while fishes, which do not need 

 thus to rise, have the tail fin expanded vertically. 

 When cetaceans rise to breathe, they forcibly expel a 

 great volume of warm, moist air from their lungs. 

 This ordinarily takes place in a cold atmosphere, and 



