OF THE UNITED STATES 387 



dining quietly on her side, as she flouts passively on the sur- 

 face of the ocean. The period of gestation is said to be ten 

 months. 



Its actions and habits under various circumstances are famil- 

 iar to the most of us, and have been well described by Scam- 

 mon; the "blowing" of this whale, and the usual products it 

 yields, I have already alluded to above. 



Turning to the Suborder Mysticetb of our List, we find a 

 splendid array of species representing the animals known as the 

 Whalebone whales, all of which are creatures of great size, and 

 valuable for the products they yield to men. Of no little im- 

 portance among these is the whalebone of commerce, but this is 

 principally obtained from the Bowhead whale (Fig. 99) of the 

 Polar Seas. The habits of the Bowhead partake of the habits of 

 whales generally, with a number of very interesting ones peculi- 

 arly its own. Professor Goode remarks that " The food of the 

 Bowhead consists of floating animals, classed by the whalemen 

 under the names ' right whale feed ' and ' brit.' Many kinds of 

 invertebrates are, of course, included under these general terms, 

 one of the most abundant of Avhicn is, perhaps, a kind of winged 

 or pteropod mollusk, the Olio borealis, which occurs in the north- 

 ern seas, floating in great masses. When the Bowhead is feeding 

 it moves with considerable velocity near the surface, its jaws 

 being open to allow the passage of currents of water into the cav- 

 ity of the mouth and through the layers of baleen at the sides. 

 All eatable substances are strained out by the fringes of the ba- 

 leen and are swallowed." Much more could be said about these 

 whalebone whales, but I find my space already nearly exhausted, 

 and I still have a few concluding remarks to make of no little im- 

 portance. 



My studies of the Cetaceans and my reading about them have 

 both convinced me that the Order has by no means received the 

 attention at the hands of descriptive zoologists and anatomists 

 that it so justly deserves. This neglect can be atoned for in 

 many ways, and more especially by such persons as reside the 

 year round either upon the Atlantic or Pacific seaboards, or by 

 capable observers who lead a seafaring life. Lighthouse keep- 

 ers and whalemen both have excellent opportunities to thus 

 powerfully aid science in such work. Whalemen should be en- 

 couraged by some means to systematically capture specimens 



