134 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



The prevailing colour of the young narwhale is black- 

 ish-gray on the back, variegated with numerous darker 

 spots running one into another, and 

 forming a dusky black surface. Paler 

 and more open spots of gray on a 

 white ground appear at the sides, dis- 

 appearing altogether about the middle 

 of the belly. In the elder animals, 

 the ground is wholly white or yellow- 

 ish white, with dark !gray or blackish 

 spots of different degrees of intensity. 

 These spots are of a roundish or ob- 

 long form : on the back, where they 

 seldom exceed two inches in diameter, 

 they are the darkest and the most 

 crowded together, yet having intervals 

 of pure white among them. On the 

 sides the spots are fainter, smaller, and 

 more open. On the belly, they be- 

 come extremely faint and few, and in 

 considerable surfaces are not to be 

 seen. 



On the upper part of the neck, just 

 behind the blow-hole, is often a close Belly of the Narwhale. 

 patch of brownish-black without any white. The ex- 

 ternal part of the fins is also generally black at the 

 edges, but grayish about the middle. The upper side of 

 the tail is also blackish round the edges : but in the mid- 

 dle, gray, with curvilinear streaks upon a white ground, 

 forming semicircular figures on each lobe. The under 

 parts of the fins and tail are similar to the upper, only 

 much paler coloured ; the middle of the fins being white, 

 and the tail of a pale gray. The colour of the sucklings 

 is almost wholly a bluish gray, or slate colour. 



