226 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



jaws of the dead monster and views the small 

 throat hole and big wrinkled unwieldy tongue, 

 he is satisfied that the Biblical animal could not 

 have been a whale-bone-bearing whale. 



It is safe to say the whale-bone whale never 

 sticks its tongue out at any one because it can't, 

 its tongue is fastened down to its lower jaws almost 

 to the tip, nevertheless it is a very useful organ to 

 the whale. 



THE WHALE IS NOT FOND OF DIRTY WATER, 



but where the water is clean, clear and of a dark 

 blue color, and where its special food is most abund- 

 ant the whale chooses its place to feed, which it does 

 by swimming two or three hundred yards and 

 back again to the starting point, with its nose just 

 under the surface, and its mouth open; let them 

 spread their jaws as wide as they will, the droop- 

 ing net of whale-bone still guards the passage of 

 the mouth and as the mouth is closed the elastic 

 ends of longer whale-bone bend back toward the 

 throat and fit into the hollow formed by the short 

 blades behind them so that the whole trap is neat 

 and snug and ready to be sprung again as soon as 

 the thick tongue, by raising at the back of the 

 mouth forces the water left there through the 

 fringed whale-bone, leaving all the small food crea- 

 tures entangled inside the meshes. 



For an hour or more the great leviathan will 

 swim back and forth feeding, then it takes an after- 

 dinner nap. 



