WHALES. 47 



CHAPTER VII. 



CET ACE A WHALES, DOLPHINS, AND PORPOISES. 



How little any of us in New Zealand know about the monsters of 

 the deep which are to be met with in the seas round our coasts ! 

 I seldom meet with any one who knows anything about them, or 

 who can furnish me with anything beyond the merest shreds of 

 information. I myself have seen a few whales and dolphins, and 

 numerous porpoises; and this is the experience of all who travel 

 by sea and care to observe its wonders. But such observers are 

 few. Most of those whose business takes them on the great waters 

 are concerned with other things than the animal life which the 

 sea contains; and even fishermen, whose occupation takes them 

 out constantly among this animal life, can give little information 

 which is of the slightest value on anything but fishes. 



Whales and their allies are not fishes, but are warm-blooded 

 mammals, which suckle their young, and which breathe air not 

 dissolved oxygen, as fishes do. They constitute the order Cetacea. 

 Twenty or more species are met with in New Zealand seas. Of 

 these many are most imperfectly known, and several are only 

 recognized by their bones. 



Zoologically cetaceans are fish-like mammals, which have the tail 

 expanded into horizontal flukes, the anterior limbs converted into 

 fin-like paddles, and the posterior limbs represented by some rudi- 

 mentary bones. Their bodies are nearly quite destitute of hair, 

 and, as they have to breathe air, their nostrils are represented by 

 a single or double blowhole, which is nearly always situated far 

 back upon the skull. Some of the order have simple conical teeth ; 

 others have the jaws furnished with plates of baleen, or whalebone. 



Whales include the largest of all vertebrate animals, but their 

 reputed measurements, like those of many fish, have to be received 

 with a grain of salt. The largest whales are the Rorquals, and 

 perhaps 85 ft. is about the maximum recorded length. Compare 



