TIIK I'.ONVHKAD: FOOD AND I KKDIM,. 23 



FOOD. Tin- l<MKl ,.f tin- Howhead consists of floating animaK Ha^ed l,\ H,.. whalemen nuclei 

 ilir name-, "right whale feed" and <-brit." Many kinds of invertebrates arc, of course. included 

 under these general terms, one of the most abundant of which is, perhaps, a kind of winged or 

 pteropod mollusk. the ('//'.. l><>i;-nlix, \vlii<-h occurs in northern seas, floating in great masses. When 

 the Imwhcad is feeding it moves with considerable velocity near the surface, its jaws being open 

 to allow the passage of currents of water into the cavity of the mouth ami through the layers of 

 baleen at the sides. All eatable substances are strained out by the fringe*) of the baleen and arc 

 swallowed. 



FKKDING HAIJITS. The manner of feeding is well described by Captain Gray : "When the food 

 is near the surface they usually choose a space between two pieces of ice, from three to four 

 hundred yards apart, which we term their beat, and swim backwards and forwards, until they arc 

 satisfied that the supply of their food is exhausted. They often go with the point of their nose so 

 near the surface that we can see the water running over it just as it does over a stone in a shallow 

 stream: they turn round before coming to the surface to blow, and lie for a short time to lick the 

 food oil 'their bone before going away for another mouthful. They often continue feeding in this 

 way for hours, on and oft", afterwards disappearing under the nearest floe, sleeping, I believe, under 

 the ice, and coining out again when ready for another meal. In no other way can this sudden 

 reapiKjarance at the same spot be accounted for. 



' Very often the food lies from ten to fifteen fathoms below the surface of the water. In this 

 case the whales' movements are quite different. After feeding they come to the surface to breathe 

 ami lie still for a minute. One can easily see the effort they make when swallowing. They then 

 raise their heads partially out of the water, diving down again, and throwing their tails up in the 

 air every time they disappear. Their course below the water can often be traced from their eddy. 

 This is caused by the movement of the tail, which has the effect of smoothing the water in circles 

 immediately behind them. 



"More whales have been caught when feeding in this way than in any other; they lie longer on 

 the surface, often heading the same way every time they appear, which is very important to whale 

 fishers, because whales must be approached tail-on to give any certainty of getting near enough 

 to have a chance of harpooning them, and the harpooner has a better idea where to place his boat 

 to be in readiness to pull on to them whenever they come to the surface. 



" Like all the other inhabitants of the sea, whales are affected by the tides, being most numerous 

 at t lie full and change of the moon, beginning to appear three days before, and disappearing entirely 

 three days after, the change. Often this will go on for mouths with the utmost regularity, unless 

 some great change in the ice takes place, such as the Hoes breaking up on the ice being driven off 

 the ground; in either case they will at once disappear. 



"No doubt whales are seen, and often token at any time of the tides; but if a herd is hunted 



middle of the jaw falling into the hollow funned by the shortness of the blades behind them, tut seen in the side view, is 

 perfectly elear and satisfactory. It shows, moreover, how, whether the month U shut <ir open, or in any intermediate 

 |M>-itiiiii. the lateral spaces between the upper and lower jaw are always kept tilled np by the marvelunsly eonstnieted 

 hair sieve, or strainer, which adapts itself by its flexibility and elasticity to the varying condition of the parts between 

 which it is, as it were, stretched across. If the whalebone had been rigid and depending perpendicularly from th 

 upper jaw when the mouth was opened, a space would be left between the tips of the whalebone forming the lowci 

 due nf the strainer, which, as Captain flray justly remarks, would complet. ly interfere with its use, although tin- stifl". 

 wall-like lower lip, closing in the sides of the mouth below, may have the effect of remedying such a contingency 

 I" :i cei lain extent ; :it least, it would do so if the whalebone were short and linn as in the tinners. The function ol 

 this great lip in .supporting the slender anil flexible lower ends of the blades of the (ireeiiland Whale and preventing 

 them being driven outwards by tin- flow of water from within when the animal is closing its mouth, i evident from 

 Captain U ray's drawings ami explanation. The whole apparatus is a most perfect piece of animal mc< haniuu. 

 I'I.OWKK, \V. li. : Land and Water, December 1, l77,p. 470. 



