THE WHALES. 37 



distinguish the Spermaceti Whale of the South. The 

 general form is much the same, but there are one or 

 two important distinctions. 



In the first place, the animal feeds almost wholly 

 upon small shell-less molluscs, usually those which are 

 known under the name of Clio borealis, and are about 

 as large as the common white slug of our gardens. The 

 great brown slug which is so often found by entomo- 

 logists when " sugaring " at night for moths, would 

 make three or four of the clio. These little creatures 

 are soft-bodied, about an inch in length, and rather 

 conical in form, the broader end of the cone being in 

 front. No one who was not acquainted with the real 

 facts would ever think that so small a creature could 

 supply food for the vast bulk of the Greenland Whale. 



Yet it is from these little molluscs that the animal 

 derives almost the whole of its food ; and, indeed, the 

 gullet is so small that it could not, by any manner of 

 means, admit the passage of any large morsel of food. 

 It has been said that a penny loaf will choke a Green- 

 land Whale, so that, although the Spermaceti Whale can 

 swallow large fishes on occasion, and even accommo- 

 date a dolphin, the Greenland Whale would not be able 

 to eat a common carp of a couple of pounds' weight. 



In this animal the teeth are modified into the re- 

 markable substance which is called by the popular but 

 absurd name of whalebone. It is, like the horns and 

 hoofs of the cow, the horn of the rhinoceros, the 

 spur of the cock, the nails of the human being, and 

 the claws of the predacious animals, a production of the 

 skin exactly analogous to hair and feathers. 



There is a second modification also, which is worthy 



