SWIMMING ANIMALS 103 



can enjoy its meal. For some of these squids are several 

 feet in length, with tentacles thirty or more feet long, 

 armed with many powerful suckers. It needs a monster 

 like the whale to tackle them, and many whales are caught 

 with great scars upon their bodies that bear witness to the 

 mighty struggles that have taken place in the deep waters 

 of the ocean. 



Among other toothed whales the Killer whales (Orca 

 gladiator) are of interest, because they hunt in packs, feeding 

 on fish and seals and even harrying the larger whales 

 themselves. The common porpoise and the dolphins are 

 also representatives of this group, the porpoises being 

 among the smallest of the toothed whales. 



The whalebone whales do not possess typical teeth. 

 They have instead long thin plates of a horny texture, set 

 close together all around the upper jaw. This is the baleen, 

 or whalebone, that was once so fashionable in ladies' attire, 

 but has now gone rather out of demand for that purpose. 

 Each plate of whalebone is frayed out along its inner edge 

 to form a mass of felted fibres (Plate 42). 



With such teeth the whale obviously cannot prey on any 

 powerful animal. It cannot bite or chew. Instead it feeds 

 on the hordes of minute animals from a quarter of an inch 

 to an inch in length, that drift in countless myriads in the 

 waters of the sea and go to form part of that drifting 

 community known as the plankton. Opening wide its 

 mouth the whale takes in a great gulp of water with all 

 its contained living animals. Then closing its mouth it 

 raises its tongue and forces the water out through the 

 whalebone sieve and the animals which remain behind are 

 swallowed. 



The Right whales (Fig. 21) are a typical example of this 

 group, as are also the Humpbacks and Rorquals. Of these 

 the Blue whale or Sibbald's Rorqual {Balcsnoptera sibbaldi). 



