THE ORDER CETACEA. 193 



Above the anterior part of the head is a protuberance 

 which forms the common orifice of the spiracles ; its situa- 

 tion in the head causes the water rejected by the Beluga 

 to fall behind it. 



The eye is small, round, projecting, and of a bluish 

 colour ; at some distance behind it, is the meatus audi- 

 torius or opening of the external ear, but the orifice is 

 so small as almost to be imperceptible. 



The skin is on every part very smooth and slippery, 

 and in general the Beluga is very fat. 



The Beluga is not unlike the narwhale in its general 

 form, but is thicker about the middle of its body in pro- 

 portion to its length. 



A male animal of this species was captured in the 

 Firth of Forth, in the month of June 1815. Its length 

 was thirteen feet four inches, and its greatest circumfer- 

 ence nearly nine feet. 



When this animal swims, says Dr. Pallas, it bends 

 the tail inwards in the same manner as a crawfish, by 

 which means it possesses the power of swimming ex- 

 tremely fast, by the alternate incurvation and extension 

 of that part. Dr. Shaw says it has so great an affinity 

 for the phoae or seals, that the Sambides consider it a 

 kind of aquatic quadruped. It produces only one young 

 at a birth, which is at first of a blue tinge and sometimes 

 grey, or even blackish ; acquiring as it advances in age 

 a pure milk-white colour. 



and were it so, I think that the last gentleman who has been familiar with 

 them would have mentioned this circumstance. He has seen some of a 

 yellow colour, approaching to an orange. 



