192 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



fish), and a variety of other fish, which it swallows with 

 such avidity as often to risk being suffocated, the orifice 

 of the throat is so narrow ; the flesh is said to have a 

 reddish tint. 



Fabricius, Dr. Pallas, and Baron Cuvier, have ac- 

 curately described this, which is the most elegant of the 

 whole tribe, and when full grown is entirely milk-white: 

 in some specimens they are tinged very slightly of a 

 rose-colour, and in others of a bluish cast. 



The head of the Beluga is small and elongated. The 

 anterior part of the body presents the figure of a cone, 

 the base of which may be considered to rest about the 

 pectoral fins against that of another cone much larger, 

 and composed of the body and tail ; the muzzle is elon- 

 gated and rounded in front ; mouth not very wide ; both 

 jaws are equal, and furnished with nine or ten small 

 teeth, blunt at the top, but unequal and distinct from 

 each other ; the largest are in front of the termination of 

 the muzzle, where the mouth, small in proportion to 

 the size of the animal, is situated. 



Dr. Shaw states it to measure from twelve to eighteen 

 feet in length, Baron Cuvier from eighteen to twenty- 

 one feet, and Count La Cepede six or seven metres. 



Instead of a dorsal fin, the Beluga has only a sort of 

 longitudinal projection on the back, which is semi-cal- 

 lous, and seems to possess but little sensibility. The 

 pectoral fins are oval, broad, and thick ; the longest of the 

 phalanges or fingers, which are all enveloped in a mem- 

 brane, has five articulations. The skin, as already stated, 

 is of a whitish colour when the animal is young, with a 

 multitude of brown spots.* 



* I am afraid that Baron Cuvier errs with respect to the brown spots, 

 inasmuch as neither Fabricius nor Captain Scoresby has mentioned them 



