454 DELPHINIDJ!. 



tion which not only influences it in pursuit of its prey, 

 but often hurries whole troops into the power of its 

 most destructive enemy, it becomes an object of interest 

 not only to the fisherman, but to the naturalist and the 

 investigator of psychological science. 



The Pilot-Whale is a native of the northern seas, and 

 according to Eschricht migrates from the Polar Seas to 

 the Atlantic. Large shoals constantly appear in the 

 neighbourhood of Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and 

 not unfrequently on the more southern coasts of Europe. 

 It also appears to enter the Mediterranean, and either 

 this or a nearly-allied species is the " Blackfish " of the 

 American coasts. 



It visits the shores of Britain in large herds, but 

 at irregular intervals of time. Hardly a year elapses 

 without its appearance at Shetland, where it is called the 

 Ceding or driving Whale ; it is often taken in Orkney, 

 and more rarely among the Hebrides. Further south it. 

 is not so often seen, but it has been recorded from many 

 points of our coast, even to the Channel and Cornwall. 



This is, perhaps, the most gregarious of all the 

 cetaceans. Herds of two or three hundred are of not 

 unfrequent occurrence, and they sometimes assemble to 

 the astonishing number of one or two thousand. This 

 extraordinary tendency to association, and their habit 

 of blindly following one another like a flock of sheep, 

 frequently leads to the capture of immense numbers, for 

 no sooner is one individual driven ashore than the rest of 

 the herd follow with blind impetuosity, and, throwing 

 themselves into shallow water, become an easy prey to 

 their pursuers. They are thus an important object of 

 pursuit to the inhabitant of Iceland, Faroe, Shetland, 

 and Orkney, yielding an abundant supply of good oil. 



On the appearance, therefore, of a shoal of these 



