VERTEBRATE ANIMALS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 213 



The majority of toothed whales subsist upon fish and cuttlefish, while the 

 whalebone whales devour immense quantities of small organisms, prin- 

 cipally crustaceans, which they strain out from the water taken into the 

 mouth, by means of their baleen plates. 



The whale fishery, once a most extensive industry, has shrunken to 

 comparatively small proportions, principally on account of the disuse of 

 whale oil as a burning fluid. 



BAL^NID^. 



RIGHT WHALE.* Eubalaena cisarctica, Cope. 



ZIPHIIDiE. 

 BOTTLE-NOSED WHALE.* Hyperoodon semijunctus, Cope. 



DELPHINID.E. 

 PORPOISE. ?Phocaena brachycion, Cope. 



SUPER-ORDER INEDUCABILIA. 



ORDER CHEIROPTERA. BATS. 



An order of mammals at once distinguishable from all others by 

 the great modification of the anterior limbs for purposes of flight. The 

 fingers are much elongated, devoid of nails except in one family, and 

 connected with each other and the body by an extremely thin skin. 

 Thumb abortive, and furnished with a strong hook or nail. Teeth of 

 three sorts, encased in enamel. Young suckled by pectoral mammae. 



The bats form a group of moderate size, and are distributed through- 

 out the globe. They are eminently fitted for aerial progression, but walk 

 very awkwardly and with much difficulty. They are active only during 

 the dark hours, remaining, during the day, in secluded places, suspended 



* Specimens of both these Cetaceans have been caught in Charleston harbor, and 

 their skeletons are in the museum of the College of Charleston. — G. E. M, 



