248 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Such gallant chiding, for, besides the groves, 
The skies, the fountains, every region near 
Seem’d all one mutual cry: I never heard 
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.” 
In a notice of the quadrupeds mentioned by Shakspeare, some 
allusion should be made to the marine Mammalia. Whales are 
often mentioned; sometimes as the “huge leviathans” (Two 
Gentlemen of Verona, Act iii., Scene 2), but it will be sufficient to 
give a couple of quotations and identify the species referred to as— 
THE GREENLAND WHALE, Balena mysticetus. 
The following apt simile occurs in Pericles (Act ii., Scene 1) :— 
“ 3rp FISHERMAN. * # * Master, I marvel how the fishes 
live in the sea. 
lst FisHerMAN. Why, as men do a-land—the great ones eat up the 
little ones. I can compare our rich misers to nothing so fitly as to a 
whale: ‘a plays and tumbles, driving the poor fry before him, and at last 
devours them all at a mouthful: such whales have I heard on o’ the land, 
who never leave gaping, till they've swallowed the whole parish, church, 
steeple, bells, and all.” 
Of course poor Falstaff could not escape the opprobrious epithet 
of “whale.” Mrs. Ford asks— 
“What tempest, I trow, threw this whale, with so many tuns of oil in 
his belly, ashore at Windsor ?” 
Merry Wives of Windsor. Act ii., Scene 1. 
Tue Dorin, Delphinus delphis. 
We often find the mythical “mermaid” associated with such 
friends as the seals and dolphins; so Shakspeare says, through 
Oberon— 
“ My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou remember’st 
Since once I sat upon a promontory, 
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s hack, 
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, 
That the rude sea grew civil at her song; 
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, 
To hear the sea-maid’s music.” 
Midsummer Night’s Dream. Act ii., Scene 2. 
