TASTE. 



101 



a, The upper mandible of the Shoveller (Rhyncliaspis clypeata), in sec- 

 tion. 6, The lower jaw of the Common Duck. 



assist in separating the peculiar food of the animal 

 from what is extraneous, by a process analogous to 

 filtration. It may be interesting* to give some details 

 of this singular organ in the whale. We must first 

 premise that the principal food of the whale con- 

 sists of small shrimps, crabs (Cancer pedatus, 

 C. oculatus, <^c.), medusa, and the like, which it 

 separates from the sea-water by means of the appa- 

 ratus of whalebone plates, six or seven hundred in 

 number, placed across the jaws, whose whole surface 

 they cover. These are all joined firmly by their 

 upper edge to the palate ; for there are none attached 

 to the lower jaw. Their broad ends are planted in 

 the gum, and their narrow ends point to the upper 

 part of the mouth. In a full-grown whale, the cen- 

 tral blades are fifteen feet long ; but they gradually 

 diminish towards the anterior and posterior ends of 

 the cavity. Their greatest breadth is at the gum, 

 and is there ten or twelve inches; and they are placed 

 at such a distance from each other, that a hand could 

 be slipped in edgewise between every pair. " They 

 resemble," Mr. Scoresby says, " a frame of saws in 

 a saw-mill." The weight of these blades in a large 



