DUGONGS, MANATEES, WHALES, PORPOISES, DOLPHINS 333 



some cases as rare as those of the rustic bunting and red-necked nightjar among birds, or of 

 the derkio and spotted dragonet among fishes. 



British zoologists, however, usually include the following : WHALEBONE-WHALES : Southern 

 Right-whale ; Humpback ; Finbacks, or Rorquals. TOOTHED WHALES : Sperm-whale, or Cachalot ; 

 Narwhal ; Beluga, or White Whale ; Grampuses ; Beaked Whale ; Broad-fronted Whale ; Cuvier's 

 Whale ; Sowerby's Whale ; Pilot-whale ; Porpoise ; Dolphin ; White-sided Dolphin ; White-beaked 

 Dolphin ; Bottlenose. 



A selection may therefore be made of five of the most representative of these species the 

 SOUTHERN WHALE, the CACHALOT, the NARWHAL, the PORPOISE, and the DOLPHIN. 



The SOUTHERN WHALE, which, in common with the closely allied polar species, whaling- 

 crews call " right," seeing that all other kinds are, from their point of view, " wrong," is 

 probably the only right-whale which has ever found its way to our shores. Some writers 

 include the Greenland Right-whale, but their authority for this is doubtful. It is said to grow 

 to a length of at any rate 70 feet, though 55 feet would perhaps be more common for even 

 large specimens. In colour it is said to be dark above, with a varying amount of white 

 or grey on the flippers and under-surface. The head and mouth are very large, occupying 

 in some cases one-third of the total length, and the baleen-plates measure as much as 8 or 

 IO feet in length and 5 or 6 feet in width. The species has no back-fin, but there 

 is a protuberance on the snout, known technically as the " bonnet." This whale appears to 

 give birth to its single calf some time in the spring months, and the mother shows great 

 affection for her offspring. The HUMPBACK is distinguished from the right-whales externally 

 by its longer flippers and the prominence on its back, and internally by the fluted skin 

 of the throat. The FlXNERS, or RORQUALS, have a distinct back-fin. They feed on fishes 

 and cuttles, and I have more than once known a rorqual, which looked fully 50 feet long 

 (comparing it roughly with my 24-foot boat), to swim slowly round and round my lugger, 

 down on the Cornish coast, puffing and hissing like a torpedo-boat on its trial trip, rounding 

 up the pilchards in a mass, and every now and then dashing through them open mouthed with 

 a terrific roar, after several of which helpings it would sink out of sight and not again put in 

 an appearance. 



The SPERM-WHALE, or CACHALOT, may serve as our type of the toothed whales. It 

 attains to the same great dimensions as the largest of the whalebone group. A more active 



BfflHHBHBHGBfiHBKS^S&Siil 



Phala k; A. S. Rudland & i'onj 



COMMON PORPOISE 



From J. to s feet long. It lives in **sc^oo/i," or companies, and pursues the herrings and mackerel 



