io8 SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRLTLSH SEAS. 



certain, however, that the tusk, which is frequently found in a broken con- 

 dition, is used for purposes of attack and defence. Like the horn of the stag, 

 it is, no doubt, a sexual distinction. 



The Narwhal is very social in its habits, great numbers being often met 

 with together ; its food consists of cuttle-fish and crustaceans. The length of 

 the full-grown animal is about i6 feet, the upper parts gray, the sides and 

 belly white, and the whole animal spotted with black and gray. The only 

 authentic figure of the Narwhal with which I am acquainted is that given by 

 Scoresby; this is so well known from frequent reproduction that it is not 

 necessary to give it here. 



THE WHITE WHALE, 



The White Whale, or Beluga {Delphinapterus leucas, Pallas), like the 

 preceding species, is a native of the Polar seas, where it is common ; it is 

 abundant in the White and Kara Seas, and in the Gulf of Obi ; on the coast 

 of Norway it is occasionally met with. From Scotland, five individuals have 

 been recorded, but it must be regarded as only an accidental straggler. On 

 the east coast of America it is found as far south as the Gulf of St, Lawrence, 

 where, as in the White Sea, it delights in ascending the mouths of large 

 rivers. 



No English examples have been met with, but, in the British Association 

 Report on the Fauna of Devonshire (1869, pp. 84 and 85) occurs the following 

 passage. "Mr. H. P. Gosse writes :— ' On August 5th, 1832, I was returning 

 from Newfoundland to England, and was sailing up the British Channel close 

 to the land, when, just off Berry Head, I saw under the ship's bows a large 

 cetacean of a milky white hue, but appearing slightly tinged with green from 



