MAMMALS OF BERMUDA. 151 
Some of the larger whales when captured are found to be infested 
externally by parasites, among others the well-known cirripede (Balanus), 
which, from the large size some of the specimens attain, must have been 
im situ for a considerable period. 
The flesh of this whale, especially that of the cub, is often sold for 
food, and is considered a treat by the families of the fishermen and labor- 
ers, who cannot afford to pay the exorbitant prices demanded by the 
vendors of butchers’ meat and poultry. We cannot, however, coincide 
with the statements of those who declare it impossible to tell a whale- 
steak from a beef one, when properly cooked, for the oily nature of the 
substance cannot wholly be obliterated under any circumstances, and 
never fails to afford the palate of the most ordinary taster a clew to its 
origin. 
The migrations of this whale,* as far as the North Atlantic is con- 
cerned, are by no means clearly ascertained, as evinced by the state- 
ment made by M. F. Maury, who affirms that “the Right Whale 
does not cross the equator or reach so low a latitude as Bermuda in the 
West Atlantic, although it does so on the side of Madeira.” <A very 
general belief prevails that the heated waters of the Gulf Stream pre- 
sent an impassable barrier to the southward progress of the Right 
Whale, and it is somewhat strange that although the presence of this 
species has been known to the inhabitants of the Bermudas ever since 
the islands were first colonized, as well as to American whalers for 
many years, its mode of reaching that position has not been properly 
investigated. The fact of its crossing the Gulf Stream on its southward 
migration, and also on its return to the north, has been well known to 
all traders between northern parts and the West Indies ever since com- 
mercial intercourse has been established; but we are unaware of any 
published statements having appeared to such effect until Col. Drum- 
mond Hay, President of the Natural History Society of Perthshire, (Scot- 
land), who was quartered with his regiment, the Forty-second Highland- 
ers, for some years upon the islands, and devoted much of his leisure 
time in investigating their natural history, in a paper on ‘“ Migration,” 
which he recently read before his society, thus alluded to the matter: 
“One especial instance which I will take is that of the Greenland Whale 
*Owing to the confusion in local nomeuclature so prevalent in Bermuda, the 
writer has failed to discriminate between the Right Whales and Hump-backs and 
the Bowhead, which never ranges so far south.—-EDITOR. 
