97 



N 



(5.) TEUTHOPHAQA. 1 Squid-eaters. 

 B. Teeth deciduous, numerous in front part only of both jaws. 



Family VI. BELUGID^l. 2 



Without dorsal fin ; head rounded in front, small, scarcely beaked, 

 pectoral fins small, sub-oval, thick, powerful ; skull, very convex, 

 caused by the hinder wing of the cheek-bone bending over the eye- 

 cavity, instead of spreading out horizontally ; teeth early, deciduous, 

 conical, oblique, frequently truncated ; cervical vertebrae usually free ; 

 blade-bone with large spinal processes. 



BELUGA CATODON, 3 Linnaeus. The Beluga or White Whale. 

 Synonyms Physeter catodon, Linn. 



Beluga catodon, Gray, 1850, S. & W., p. 307, Suppl., p. 94. 



Delphinapterus Beluga. Lacepede. Scoresby. 



The Beluga or White Whale, Jardine,Nat. Lib., vol. 7,p. 204. 



Teeth H to JS, most frequently H, conical. 



The colour of the adult animal is throughout of a creamy white, 

 whence is derived the name White Whale of the English sailors, and 

 Hvitfisk of the Scandinavian seamen. When young, however, the 

 general colour is much darker, being either of a slaty-grey, mottled 

 with brownish spots, or of an uniform bluish tint ; being thus readily 

 distinguishable among the grown-up animals of the herd. 



The old attain in length to as much as 20 feet, but the examples 

 usually met with, measure from 13 to 14 feet. 



The form of the body somewhat resembles two unequal cones joined 

 at their bases, the shorter one being placed in front. The head is 

 small and lengthened, and the tail thick and powerful. The union of 

 these parts presents a frame replete with graceful symmetry, and well 

 adapted for that velocity for which this species is so celebrated. 



The food of the white whale consists of cuttle-fish, large prawns, and 

 of the smaller kinds of fish, such as cod, haddock, &c., so abundantly 

 distributed over the Northern Seas. 



Inhab : Higher latitudes of the Northern Seas, principally within 

 the Arctic circle. 



The habits of this fine species of whale are decidedly gregarious, 

 commonly frequenting the estuaries of the larger rivers, and very rarely 

 seen far from land. It is found most plentifully in Hudson's Bay, 

 Davis Straits, and' in certain portions of the Northern coasts of America 

 and Asia. During the winter large herds exist along the coast of 

 Danish Greenland, but, as summer approaches, they travel towards the 

 north, feeding along the western shores of Davis Straits up to the head 

 of Baffin's Bay, their range of habitat corresponding greatly with that 

 of the Bight Whale. __ _ 



s, calamary or squid, and ^cfyco, I eat. 



* Beluga, from the Kussian Bieluga, signifying White-fish. 



3 KO.TU, under, below, and oSofo tooth, in allusion to the teeth being found only in 

 the lower jaw of the sperm whale, which the beluga, but only in some other respects, 

 resembles. 



