CLASS I. MAMMALIA. ORDER VIII. CETACEA. 51 



clumsy head, rough and frizzled hair, and an awkward and 

 disagreeable form ; so different indeed is he from the domestic 

 animal, that we can hardly recognize him as being of the 

 same species with the noble and graceful creature that we are 

 accustomed to behold. -^-~ 



VIII. Cetacea. The whales are usually confounded with 

 the class of fishes, which they resemble in many particulars 

 of external appearance, as well as in the circumstance of re- 

 siding always in the water. In point of structure, however, 

 they clearly belong to the class Mammalia, since they breathe 

 air by means of lungs, are warm-blooded, produce their 

 young alive, and nourish them with their own milk. Instead 

 of fore feet, they are furnished with fins or oars, which, how- 

 ever, are supported by bones similar to those of the fore feet 

 of quadrupeds. They have no hind feet, but their body ter- 

 minates in a thick tail, which supports a fin or oar. This fin 

 is horizontal, whilst that of fishes is vertical. 



A few of the Cetacea are herbivorous, and are frequently 

 obliged to leave the water and crawl upon the shore in search 

 of food. Such are the manati, usually called the sea-ox and 

 sea-cow, and the dugong. They have upon their fins the 

 rudiments of claws, which are of service to them in their mo- 

 tions upon the land, and with which they are even able to 

 carry their young. The mammae, from which 'they nurse 

 their young, are upon the chest, like those of the human spe- 

 cies; and they have, around the face, a growth of hair which 

 resembles, in a slight degree, that of man. Hence the ap- 

 pearance they present when the upper part of their bodies is 

 elevated above the water, bears some resemblance to that of 

 mankind, and they have, consequently, been called sea-apes. 

 It is probable that these animals being seen by the credulous, 

 the ignorant, the timid, or the superstitious, gave rise to the 

 ancient fables of the tritons and sirens, and, in modern times, 

 to the various unfounded stories of mermen and mermaids. 



The remainder of the cetaceous animals, such as the whale, 

 porpoise, grampus, narwhale, and dolphin, are distinguished 

 by a peculiar construction, which has acquired for them the 

 common name of blowers, and which is rendered necessary 

 by their mode of taking their prey. In taking into their very 

 large mouths a great number of fishes, mollusca, medusae, 

 &,c., at once, they would swallow at the same time large 

 quantities of water, were there not some provision for getting 

 rid of it. To effect this, the water is passed up through the 

 roof of the mouth, into a cavity situated near the external ori- 



