NATURAL HISTORY 771 



diameter are of all shades from white to of the head, and the animal can only respire 



pink, and are delightfully fragrant. when these are above water. The larger whales 



Weasel. The name of a number of small travel at the rate of about four miles an hour, 



carnivorous mammals related to the sable, mink, but when pursuing their prey or goaded by 



and skunk. They have a remarkably .slender, pain they rush through the water at a much 



round body with a long neck, which* gives the greater pace. They are aided in this* by the 



animal the appearance of having the fore legs broad and powerful tail, which is their chief 



set back too far. The legs are very short. The organ of locomotion. Instead of being vertical. 



common weasel, found both in the Old and the as in the fishes, this is horizontal, and the 



New World-*, reaches a length of eight or ten larger species can command immense driving 



inches; it is light reddish brown and whitish power. The tail is also used as an offensive 



below, and in northern districts becomes whitish and defensive weapon. The smooth, shining 



in winter. It feeds on mice, moles, and rats, skin is immediately underlaid by a thick coating 



following them into their holes, and even rabbits of blubber, the great object of the whalers. 



fall a prey to li. It rarely visits hen-yards. It This is at once dense and elastic, and while it 



ranges in' America east of 'the Rocky Mountains, preserves the animal heat it also serves to re- 



Munh to the border of the Southern States, duce the mighty bulk of the whale and to bring 



>toat, or ermine, likewise inhabits Kurope. it nearer to the specific gravity of the element 



A-ia. and America, ranging, east of the Rocky in which it spenas its existence. It might be 



Mountains, from the extreme northern limit of thought that the whale, with its vast bulk, 



-trial animals to the Southern States. It is would need sea creatures of a high organization 



eight to eleven inches long. In summer, its color to nourish it ; but this is not so. Its chief food 



i- mahogany brown,, witn a black tip to the consists of minute mollusks, and with the-e it- 



tail. In winter, it changes, in northern regions, immense pasture-grounds in the north seas 



to a pure white except tne tip of the tail which abound. 



remains black. Other examples are the brindled Whip-poor-will. A bird widely known 

 uea-el of the western coast, found from Call- on account of its oft- repeated cry of wh ip-poor- 

 fornia to Kcuador, and the long-tailed weasel of will. It is not often seen, although it is abundant 

 the north. in damp woods of the eastern United States. 

 NVhale. The popular name of the larger It usually rests on the ground during the day 

 cetaceans, particularly of all those belonging and is active at twilight and early nightfall, 

 to the families linln-nidn- and 1'hi/wtiriiln or sending forth its cry, and also coursing 1<>\\ 

 Catodontidce. In the Balcrnida' the head is of the grass in search of insects. It is about ten 

 enormous size, but is entirely destitute of teeth, inches long and of plain colors, being grayish, 

 in-tend of which the palate is furnished with an much variegated with black and buff. Its bill 

 apparatus of baleen, or whalebone, for the pur- is very broad, its mouth large and provided 

 pose of straining out of the water the small with a tuft of long bristles. It builds no IK -t 

 crustacean-, which form the food of these but deposits its eggs on leaves or a slight de- 

 whales. The fibrous structure of baleen, or pression in the ground. To the same family 

 whalebone, its elasticity, and its heaviness, are belong the chuck-will's- widow and the night- 

 well known. The plates of it in the mouth of hawk. 



a whale are very numerous, several hundreds W r lllow. A class of trees of the same family 



on each side of the mouth, and they are very as the poplar. Willows vary in size from those 



closely placed together, so that the mouth is of the Alps, which are an inch or two high, to 



filled with them. The head of whales usually trees of from fifty to eighty feet. They are 



occupies from a third to a fourth of the whole found in most countries, with the exception of 



length. The lower surface of the true skin Australia, ami they grow rapidly. They have 



extends into a thick layer of blubber, an open many and large roots, which grow a long^ dis- 



net-work of fibers, in which fat i- held. The lance through moist soil, and hind it with a 



blubber is from one foot to two feet in thickness, network of fibers, thus preventing the banks of 



the whole mass in a large whale .sometimes -(reams from being worn away. The bni 



-hing more than thirty tons. The mo-t tough and bitter: it is used in making fish nets, 



important species is that known as the Right ropes, etc.; for tan-bark, and sometimes in 



Whale Or Greenland whale. It inhabits the seas Norway and Sweden for mixing with oatmeal, 



of the northern parts of the world, and abounds The wood is used in houses, vessels, farm t 

 chiefly in the arctic It atta: c. ; as fuel and for charcoal. Thetwit:- 



iT sixty or seventy feet in length. It was form- and young shoots .-ire used in making baskets 



erly supposed that the ( Ireenhnd \\hale wai an and Tight furniture. There are aon North 



inhabitant of the southern as \\rll ys the north- American willow-, ten of which are not found 



TII parts of the world: but the Southern or elsewhere. The most ini|M.rtant of all kinds i 



whale ia no w regarded a a distinct speeki the white willow, common throughout Ada, 



the head being smaller in projMirtion than that I ' and America. It sometimes reaches 



of its northern and t lie color a uniform the height of eight \ feet . I u-rful im 



black. The mam |.h\ ic.il characti-n-t ic- of the the prairies, as it is a fast grower, and al-<> 



whale are it- dist..Me.| JAW*, with upward tects other trees from the wind. Other 1. 



directed no-tn: t bulk, and rudimei lie golden, blue, brit tie. varnished, and : 



limbs. The huge bulk of the creature is driven willows. The weeping willow, a native of Aa 



rard by the flexible caudal fin, and while the and North \ been introduced into 



:gid in front it exhibit- great mobility America. It md one of t he fir-t 



behind. The blow I 1 on the if out in t; 



