THE BOWHEAD: FOOD AND FEEDING. ' 28 



Food. — The food of the Bowhead consists of floating animals, classed by the whalemen njidei 

 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 which is, perhaps, a kind of winged or 

 pteropod mollusk, the Olio borealis, which, occurs in northern 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 cavity of the mouth and through the layers of 

 baleen at the sides. All eatable substances are strained out by the fringes of the baleen and are 

 swallowed. 



Feeding habits. — The manner of feeding is well described by Captain Gray : " When the food 

 is near the surface they usually choose a space between two pieces of ice, from three to four 

 hundred yards apart, which we term their beat, and swim backwards and forwards, until they are 

 satisfied that the supply of their food is exhausted. They often go with the point of their nose so 

 near the surface that we can see the water running over it just as it does over a stone in a shallow 

 stream ; they turn round before coming to the surface to blow, and lie for a short time to lick the 

 food off their bone before going away for another mouthful. They often continue feeding in this 

 way for hours, on and off, afterwards disappearing under the nearest floe, sleeping, I believe, under 

 the ice, and coming out again when ready for another meal. In no other way can this sudden 

 reai)pearance at the same spot be accounted for. 



" Very often the food lies from ten to fifteen fathoms below the surface of the water. In this 

 case the whales' movements are quite different. After feeding they come to the surface to breathe 

 and lie still for a minute. One can easily see the effort they make when swallowing. They then 

 raise their heads partially out of the water, diving down again, and throwing their tails up in the 

 air every time they disappear. Their course below the water can often be traced from their- eddy. 

 This is caused by the movement of the tail, which has the effect of smoothing the water in circles 

 immediately behind them. 



" More whales have been caught when feeding in this way than in any other; they lie longer on 

 the surface, often heading the same way every time they appear, which is very important to whale 

 fishers, because whales must be approached tail-on to give anj' certainty of getting near enough 

 to have a chance of harpooning them, and the harpooner has a better idea Avhere to place his boat 

 to be in readiness to pall on to them whenever they come to the surface. 



" Like all the other inhabitants of the sea, whales, are affected by the tides, being most numerous 

 at the full and change of the moon, beginning to appear three days before, and disappearing entirely 

 three days after, the change. Often this will go on for months with the utmost regularity, unless 

 some great change in the ice takes place, such as the floes breaking up on tlie ice being driven off 

 the ground ; in either case they will at once disappear. 



" No doubt whales are seen, and often taken at any time of the tides ; but if a herd is hunted 



middle of the jaw falling into the hollow formed by the shortness of the hlades behind them, as seen in the side view, is 

 perfectly clear and satisfactory. It shows, moreover, how, whether the mouth is shut or open, or in any intermediate 

 position, the lateral spaces between the upper and lower jaw are always kept filled up by the marvelously constructed 

 hair sieve, or strainer, which adapts itself by its flexibility and elasticity to the varying condition of the parts between 

 which it is, as it were, stretched across. If the whalebone had been rigid and depending perpendicularly from the 

 upper jaw when the mouth was opened, a space would be left between the tips of the whalebone forming the lowei 

 edge of the strainer, which, as Captain Gray justly remarks, would completely interfere with its use, although the stiff, 

 wall-like lower lip, closing in the sides of the mouth below, may have the effect of remedying such a contingency 

 to a certain extent; at least, it would do so if the whalebone were short and firm as in the flnners. The function oi 

 this great lip in sujjporting the slender and flexible lower ends of the blades of the Greenland Whale and preventing 

 them being driven outwards by the flow of water from within when the animal is closing its mouth, is evident from 

 Captain Gray's drawings and explanation. The whole apparatus is a most perfect piece of animal mechanism. — 

 Flower, W. H. : Laud and Water, December 1, 1877, p. 470. 



