THE GREENLAND OR RIGHT WHALE 



(Balcena mysticetus} 



Whales, the largest existing animals, are not fishes, as often 

 'supposed, but mammals which have become highly specialized 

 in relation to an aquatic existence. Hence the fish - shaped 

 body, the paddle-like fore-limbs, and the propulsive tail, which 

 is flattened from above downwards and not, as in a fish, from 

 side to side. The hind-limbs are only represented by insig- 

 nificant vestiges not visible externally. A thick layer of fat 

 ("blubber") is present below the skin, compensating for the 

 practical absence of a hairy external covering. The Greenland 

 Whale, which is the species here depicted, may be over 80 feet 

 long and nearly 150 tons in weight. In spite of its huge size 

 it feeds chiefly upon the shoals of small and minute animals 

 which abound on the surface of the ocean, these being strained 

 through the fringed plates of "whalebone", or baleen, which 

 hang down from the roof of the mouth. Whales rise from time to 

 time to the surface to breathe, a double "blow-hole" on the top 

 of the head representing the nostrils. The "spout" does not 

 consist of water that has passed through the mouth, but is 

 simply the condensed moisture of the breath. The mouth can 

 be kept under water without fear of choking, for the top of 

 the windpipe projects into the back of the nasal passages, and 

 food can pass into the gullet on either side of it. 



