88 MAMMALIA. 



(Alopias vulpes), the very existence of wliieh Scoresby seemed to 

 doubt, but which is now so comparatively well-kno-mi to naturalists 

 and seamen, is also an enemy of the Whale. It is doubtful, 

 however, whether it attacks it in life, or only preys upon it after 

 death. The Advice (Captain A. Deuchars) once took a dead 

 "Whale alongside, which this Shark was attacking in dozens, the 

 belly being perfectly riddled by them.* The Greenland Shark 

 [Sci/jjinus borea/is), though it gorges itself with the dead Whale, 

 does not appear to trouble it during life. Martens's most circum- 

 stantial account of the fight between the Whale and Sword-fish . 

 seems to have originated in a misconception, this name being 

 applied by seamen not only to the scomberoid fish {Xiphian), but 

 also to the Gladiator Dolphin, which, it is well known, fights 

 furiously with the Eight Whale. The "Wliale must attain a 

 great age, nor does it seem to be troubled with many diseases. 

 Whales which are seen floating dead are almost always found to 

 have been wounded. They are often killed with harpoon-blades 

 embedded deep in the blubber ; and some of these, from the marks 

 on them, have been proved to be the remains of fights of a very 

 ancient date, and in which the "WTiale has come ofii' ^'ictor." 



"Each species of Whale," remarks Dr. Gray, "has its own 

 peculiar kind of sessile Cirriped ; one has the Coronula, another 

 the DIcidema, and a third the Tiihicinella. They are all sunk in 

 the surface of the skin, with the aperture for the free valve, or 

 operculum as it is called, alone exposed, and as they grow in size 

 the deeper they sink into the skin. Some genera allied to Coronulw 

 are found on the shells of Turtles, and on the outer surface of 

 shells that are partially covered by the mantle of the animal. 

 The Whales have also pedunculated Cirripeds, as Otions, on them ; 

 these were early observed : ' This Whale hath naturally growing 

 ui^on his backe white things like unto Barnacles.' (Purc/ias, 

 Pi/rjrim.s, 471)." 



In the genus Euhahena the head is about a fourth of the entire 

 length, and there are some other differences. Only one species 

 can with certainty be referred to it, the Cape Whale [E. austmlis), 

 of which a female measured sixty-eight feet in length. In the 



* The sailors have a notion that the Shark does not bite out the pieces, hut cuts 

 them by means of its curved dorsal tin, and seizes them as they sink whea severed 

 from the victim. This belief is widely and firmly received. 



