411 



Order CETACEA— WHALES, DOLPHINS, PORrOISES. 



" Part huge of bulk. 



^^' allowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait, 

 Tempest the ocean : there Leviathan, 

 Huge.st of living creatures, on the deep 

 Stretched like a promontorj-, sleeps or swims. 

 And seems a moving land." — Milton. 



In passing from one order of mammalia to another, the scene 

 changes like that of a panorama. From the Paehyderinata, 

 living on the land beneath the burning sun of India or of Africa, 

 we turn to the Cetacea, dwelling in the seas, and fixing their 

 head-quarters 



" In thrilling regions of thick-ribb'd ice." 



These animals are distinguished by their fish-like form — their 

 flat horizontal tail — and by tlie anterior extremities being in the 

 form of fins. They were divided by Cuvier into two families, 

 the herbivorous and the carnivorous, according to the nature of 

 theu" food. The carnivorous Cetacea, to which our attention 

 shall be restricted, are arranged in three groups, represented bj'' 

 the Dolphin, the Sj^ermaceti Whale, and the Baleen Whale, in 

 all of which the nostrils are situated on the crown of the head, 

 and act as blow-holes. 



Delphinidoe. — The common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) is 

 occasionally met with on our coasts. The very name is asso- 

 ciated with classic fable,* and with the splendid creations of 

 our own Shakspeare ;t and its habits are such as to excite 

 universal interest whenever they are observed. "The exces- 



* Arion, having charmed the Dolphins by his music, was carried by one 

 of them on its back. Amphitrite's car is represented as drawn on the sea by 

 a group of Dolphins. 



f The passage referred to is that in the Midsummer Night's Dream : — 



' ' 1 sat upon a promontorj-, 



And heard a Mermaid, on a Dolphin's back. 

 Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath 

 That the rude sea grew civil at her soug." 



