Fish and Their Fabulous Neighbors [ 185 



requirement for having fur or hair? Well, it does have some hairs 

 just a few! sprouting under its chin. Its ancestors of long ago 

 doubtless had a great deal more hair. 



How Whales Breathe: But here is another unorthodox feature of 

 the whale. We know that mammals, unlike fish, do not have gills. 

 How, then, does the whale manage to breathe in its ocean home? 

 Like the land mammals, it must take oxygen into its lungs. 



This mammal of the sea has nostrils at the top of its head, 

 making possible a quick intake of air when it comes to the surface. 

 When the whale is below the surface, special muscles close the 

 nostrils firmly against water. There is also a passageway at the 

 back of the mouth which directly connects the nose passage with 

 the windpipe. Thus water cannot reach the whale's lungs even 

 when its mouth is open. Ordinarily a whale comes up for air every 

 few minutes; but it can stay below the surface twenty minutes 

 or more by making use of oxygen stored in its blood. 



"There She Blows!": During an ocean voyage you might see the 

 last phase of the whale's unique breathing operation. The excla- 

 mation "There she blows!" on shipboard calls attention to one 

 or two fine sprays, looking like steam erupting from the water. 

 They indicate the spot where a whale has just risen to the surface 

 and exhaled! The blast of air sent out of its nostrils is very warm 

 and saturated with water vapor. The blast condenses as it strikes 

 the colder air, forming the columns of spray that have led people 

 to insist incorrectly that whales spout water. 



How Whales Swim: If you are looking at a picture of a whale 

 that shows its whole body, it will be interesting to see whether 

 your child can notice an important difference between the whale's 

 tail and the tail fin of a fish. The former flattens out into a broad 

 paddle, lying in a horizontal plane. This is just the opposite of 

 the fish's tail, which is always expanded vertical-wise. While the 

 fish helps move itself forward by lashing its tail to the right and 

 left, the whale propels itself forward with an up and down motion. 



What Whales Eat: After learning the story of Jonah and the 

 whale, a child may ask, "Do whales really eat people?" 



