46 THE BRITISH MAMMALS : THEIR GENERA AND SPECIES. 



caught anyhow, to be brought ashore and there eaten head first, 

 the tail being left. The otter hunts in most cases by night all the 

 year round. It ranges throughout northern Europe and Asia, and, 

 though becoming rare, exists in many of the larger British and Irish 

 rivers. 



Megaptera. Plate xix. GET ACE A. 



54. boops, HUMPBACK WHALE. Dorsal low ; flippers long, 



narrow, and mainly white ; flippers and flukes serrated. 



The Humpback Whale has put in several appearances off the 

 east coast of Scotland and elsewhere round our northern coasts. It 

 is about fifty feet in length, and easily recognisable by its white 

 flippers a third as long as the body which it frequently lifts above 



HUMPBACK WHALE. 

 (Megaptera boops.) 



the water in flapping itself to get rid of its parasites, or in flapping 

 others as a mark of affection at the beginning of the breeding season. 

 It is the only whalebone whale that has been seen to leap clear 

 above the waves. In colour it is black, frequently marbled with 

 white below. The lower lip is nearly straight, and does not rise 

 above the level of the eye. The throat is grooved ; the whalebone is 

 short, broad, and black. The dorsal fin is low and humplike, hence 

 the name. There are only four digits in the flippers, the third finger 

 being the one that has gone. It feeds upon fishes as well as upon 

 the usual small invertebrates, and is practically world-wide in 

 distribution. 



Meles. Plate vii. CARNIVORA. 



28. taxus. BADGER. Grizzly above, black below. 



The Badger is best known by his distinctive colouration, the 

 black limbs and underparts, and the pale grizzly upper parts, with 



