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ORDER CETACEA WHALES, DOLPHINS, PORPOISES. 



- u Part huge of bulk, 



Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait, 

 Tempest the ocean : there Leviathan, 

 Hugest of living creatures, on the deep 

 . Stretch'd like a promontory, sleeps or swims, 

 And seems a moving land." MILTON. 



In passing from one order of mammalia to another, the scene 

 changes like that of a panorama. From the Pachydermata, 

 living on the land beneath the burning sun of India or of 

 Africa, we turn to the Cetacea, dwelling in the seas, and fixing 

 their head quarters 



" In thrilling regions of thick-ribb'd ice." 



These animals are distinguished by their fish-like form their 

 flat horizontal tail and by the anterior extremities being in 

 the form of fins. They were divided by Cuvier into two 

 families, the herbivorous and the carnivorous, according to the 

 nature of their food. The carnivorous Cetacea, to which our 

 attention shall be restricted, are arranged in three groups, 

 represented by the Dolphin, the Spermaceti Whale, and the 

 Baleen Whale, in all of which the nostrils are situated on the 

 crown of the head, and act as blow-holes. 



Delphinidce. The common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis) is 

 occasionally met with on our coasts. The very name is 

 associated with classic fable,*" and with the splendid creations 

 of our own Shakspeare;t and its habits are such as to excite 

 universal interest whenever they are observed. "The exces- 



* Avion having charmed the Dolphins by his music, was carried by one 

 of them on its back. Amphitrite's car is represented as drawn on the sea 

 by a group of Dolphins. 



f The passftge referred to is that in the Midsummer Night's Dream : 



" I sat upon a promontory, 



And heard a Mermaid, on a Dolphin's back 

 Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath 

 That the rude sea grew civil at her song." 



