282 



B A D I S T E II B A L ft N A. 



triangularly for a short distance, and below it rfms in 

 a line with the eyes towards the fore part of the 

 mouth ; yet the whole eye is within the dark colour 

 of the upper part of the head, and that colour runs at the 

 corner of the eye, with an acute angle, into the white. 



" The badger of Europe has three broad white 

 marks, one on each side and one on the top of the 

 head, between which there are two broad black lines, 

 including the eyes and ears ; all the parts under the 

 throat and jaw are black. The hairs on the upper 

 part of the body and sides of the American badger 

 are fine, long, and greyish ; in the European they are 

 darker. In our animal the legs are of a dark brown ; 

 in the European quite black. 



" Notwithstanding the European badger is gene- 

 rally the largest, its dark coloured nails are smaller 

 than those of the American, which are of a light horn 

 colour. The tail of the American badger is shorter 

 than that of the European. The American badger 

 weighs from fourteen to eighteen pounds." 



The characters given by this accurate describer 

 of American animals, show enough of difference for 

 the establishment of a distinct species, such as could 

 hardly have resulted from the difference of climate. 

 The white on the throat, and the paleness of the 

 colour generally on the under side, would lead to the 

 conclusion that the American species is not affected 

 by the weather in precisely the same manner as the 

 common. From the proportionally larger size of its 

 claws, which almost equal those on some of the 

 armadillos, one would conclude that the American 

 is by much the more expert burrower of the two ; 

 and its finer, more produced, and more lightly tinted 

 fur, obviously fit it for existing under greater varia- 

 tions of climate and temperature. Whether its fur 

 undergoes any seasonal change, and what are its habits 

 during the winter months, are not stated. - 



BADISTER (Clairville). A genus of Coleopter- 

 ous insects, belonging to the section Pentamcra, 

 family Carabidte, and sub-family Harpalides. They 

 are of small size, but their colours are elegantly varied 

 with red or ochre, and black or blue. They are chiefly 

 found under stones, in moist situations. The chin 

 (mentum) is not toothed, the mandibles obtuse, the 

 labial palpi have the last joint oval, and the maxillary 

 have the third joint longer than the fourth. De Jean 

 gives only five species in his new catalogue ; Stephens 

 describes three British (Gambits bipustulatis of Fabri- 

 cius being the type), exclusive of two others which 

 he has described as a distinct genus, under the name 

 of Trimorphm. 



BJECKIA. (Linnaeus). A family of ornamental 

 greenhouse shrubs, chiefly natives of New Holland. 

 Class and order, Oclandria Monogynia ; natural order, 

 Myrtacece. Generic character : calyx turbinated, 

 limb five-cleft, persisting ; corolla imposed on the 

 calyx ; stamens numerous, variable (from five to 

 fifteen), inserted in the calyx, like so many gems 

 within the petals ; filaments awl-shaped ; anthers 

 roundish, two-celled ; style short ; stigma capitate ; 

 capsule three-celled, many-seeded. 



BAIKALITE. A mineral found near the lake 

 Baikal in Siberia. It is sometimes considered as a 

 variety of SAHLITE, which see. 



BAL^NAandBAL^INOPTERA. Twogenera, 

 or perhaps rather, subgenera, of Cetaceous mammalia, 

 inhabitants of the sea, and including all the toothless 

 or whalebone whales. The chief external distinction 

 is, that the baltcrue have no dorsal fin, and the others 



have, on which account they arc called lahcnoptera:, 

 or " winged bala;nae." Of balacna, there is one re- 

 markable species, B. mysticctus, the common black 

 or Greenland whale ; of balajnoptcra there arc 

 several species, which will be noticed after we have 

 made a few general remarks on the characters, habits, 

 and haunts of these singular and highly-interesting 

 animals. The differences between them and the 

 toothed whales and other warm-blooded tenants of the 

 deep, which have partly the external forms and appa- 

 rently some of the habits of fishes, but which in their 

 internal structure and all the essential parts of their 

 economy, are yet as truly mammalia as any of that 

 class which inhabit the land, will be pointed out in 

 the general article on the order CETACEA. 



In modern times, Balcena mysticetus, has been 

 " the whale" by way of eminence, though perhaps 

 now other species, or rather another genus, may be 

 as much in request, and held in full}' more estimation. 

 It is not probable that this species was familiarly 

 known to the ancients, as they were familiar only 

 with the animals of the Mediterranean and of the 

 shores of the Atlantic as far northward as Britain ; 

 and their whales are represented as being armed 

 with formidable teeth, and capable of swallowing 

 dolphins ( Coryphcence, not the dolphins of modern 

 naturalists), and other large and fast swimming fishes, 

 which the balaena neither do nor can do. It is pro- 

 bable, however, that in the time of the Romans, this 

 genus may have been occasionally seen, especially in 

 the Bay of Biscay and on the British shores, in the 

 former of which places the modern whale-fishery is 

 said to have begun. That the Romans were ac- 

 quainted with the size of whales on the British shores, 

 and that these were larger than those in the Mediter- 

 ranean, though one of them is described by Pliny as 

 being sufficiently formidable to engage in the port 

 of Ostia the emperor Claudian and his army, is cer- 

 tain ; for when Juvenal, who generally gave effect to 

 hie satires by selecting illustrations familiar to the 

 people of Rome, ridicules the aping of the great by 

 the small, he takes his contrast from the dolphin and 

 the whale of the British seas. . 



Quanto delphinis balaena Britannica major. 

 The point of which was very much increased by the 

 whale being by common repute "the devourer of 

 dolphins." 



But though the ancients thus knew the whale, it 

 was to them little else than the monster of the deep, 

 serving, as in the line above quoted from Juvenal, 

 " to point a moral," or, as in the fable of Perseus and 

 Andromeda, to " adorn a tale," it does not, in any 

 species, appear to have been known to them as a 

 subject of science, or as valuable in the arts of life. 



Independently of its commercial value, the whale 

 is one of the most interesting of nature's productions. 

 The regions in which it is usually found ; its vast 

 size ; its singular form ; its curious habits ; its com- 

 bining at once the maximum of physical strength 

 and gentleness of disposition ; and a variety of other 

 circumstances, all conspire to render the whale the 

 wonder of the deep. And those qualities belong in 

 a pre-eminent manner to balsenae, the apparent sim- 

 plicity of whose lives, and the smallness of the 

 individual substances on which they feed, give them 

 an interest superior to that of the more ferocious and 

 formidably armed species. 



The common whale may be said to inhabit the 

 whole ocean, and its size and power render it worthy 



