WHALES AND PORPOISES 23 



The beluga has but little more claim than the narwhal to 

 be considered a British mammal. Hitherto it has only made its 

 appearance on the coast of Scotland, some five instances in all 

 having been recorded. In 1879 a specimen was stranded by the 

 tide off a river mouth in Sutherlandshire. The broad tail of the 

 whale had in some way been caught between two short posts 

 which were connected with a net. A dead salmon lying in the 

 vicinity suggested that the beluga had attempted to ascend the 

 river in pursuit of this fish. Indeed, the white whale not 

 infrequently ascends rivers, and appears to have little terror of 

 shoal water. 



In both the beluga and the narwhal there is practically no 

 back fin, merely a low ridge standing up along the lower part 

 of the back. Also in common with the narwhal, the vertebrae 

 of the neck in the beluga are separate bones, not fused into a 

 mass, as in most other cetaceans and all other members of the 

 Dolphin family. In these two animals also (especially in the 

 beluga) there is a slight indication of a neck in the outward 

 aspect. 



The beluga feeds on such fish as salmon, cod, and flounders, 

 also on cuttlefish and crustaceans. Like the narwhal, it is 

 never solitary, but consorts with others of its kind in small 

 herds. The beluga is unusually playful, not only with its fellows, 

 but even seeming to romp through the water in accompanying 

 ships. This charming confidence, however, is fast dying out, 

 on account of the way in which the animal is attacked by man 

 for its blubber and hide. The beluga, when swimming close to 

 the surface of the water, often emits a bellowing noise when it 

 comes to the surface to breathe. Whalers have named it the 

 " Sea Canary," from the fact of its uttering these cries ; but 

 the metaphor is very strained, as, at most, its cry is a sobbing 

 sound, like the faint lowing of an ox. The beluga has been 

 several times caught alive, has been kept in captivity, and 

 become quite tame. One which was captured in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, in the middle of the nineteenth century, was kept 

 alive in a tank at Boston for two years. In the seventh volume 



