HOW A HUMPBACK DIVES AND SPOUTS 



breath is suddenly blown out of the mouth. I have 

 often seen a whale blow when its head was still a 

 short distance under the surface and at such times 

 a little water will be thrown upward with the spout. 

 That whales spout out of the blowholes water which 



The tail of the humpback as the animal ''sounds" looks like a 

 great butterfly which has alighted upon the water. 



has been taken in through the mouth is probably more 

 widely believed than any other popular misconcep- 

 tion. As a matter of fact such a performance would 

 be impossible because a whale's nostrils do not open 

 into the back of the mouth as do those of a man, and 

 the animal is not able to breathe through its mouth 

 as do ordinary land mammals. 



Instead, an elongation of the arytenoid cartilages 



43 



