BRITISH MAMMALS 



ground, forming semi-circular figures on each lobe. . . . The colour of the 

 sucklings is almost wholly a bluish-grey or slate-colour. . . . 



" The principal food of the Narwhal seems to be molluscous animals. 

 In the stomachs of several that I have examined were numerous remains of 

 sepiae. 



" Narwhals are quick, active, inoifensive animals. They swim with 

 considerable velocity. When respiring at the surface, they frequently lie 

 motionless for several minutes, with their backs and heads just appearing 

 above water. They are of a somewhat gregarious disposition, often appear- 

 ing in numerous little herds of half a dozen, or more, together. Each herd 

 is most frequently composed of animals of the same sex." 



According to Mr. W. G. Burn Murdoch [Modern Whaling and 'Bear 

 Huntings p. 237) Narwhals utter at times a groaning sound. 



This species keeps chiefly to the ice in the Arctic seas, and only on 

 very rare occasions has visited the British coasts. 



The first is recorded from the Firth of Forth, where one was taken near 

 the Isle of May as far back as 1648. The next was stranded alive near 

 Boston, Lincolnshire, in 1800, and another was driven ashore in Weisdale 

 Sound, Shetland, in September 1808. 



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