VII. Order Cetacea, or Whales 



Hump-backed Whale. — We have now to include in 

 our survey of the British mammals the largest animals 

 of all. As the Elephant is the bulkiest land-animal 

 existing to-day, the Whale is the heaviest monster of 

 the sea. 



Whales are sub-divided into two orders, one, the 



Mystacoceti, containing those species which possess 



whalebone plates (and hence are toothless) ; the second, 



the Odontoceti, claiming those species which are toothed. 



To the former the Hump-backed and Common and 



Lesser Rorquals belong ; to the latter the Bottle-nosed 



and Common Dolphins, and the Common Porpoise. 



Whilst there are twenty-one species of Cetaceans on the 



British list, most of these are rare visitants to our seas, 



and it will serve our present purpose to state the chief 



features of three of the commoner representatives of 



each sub-order. Our first species, the Hump-back, 



has been thus named because of a hump on the back, 



and a fold of skin which it possesses along the throat. 



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