246 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



[Whales. 



Lyons, of the Raith of Leith, while prosecuting the 

 whale fishery on the Labrador coast, in the season 

 of 1802, discovered a large whale at a short distance 

 from the ship. Four boats were sent in pursuit, and 

 two of them succeeded in approaching it so closely 

 together, that two harpoons were struck at the same 

 moment. The whale descended a few fathoms in 

 the direction of another of the boats, which was on 

 the advance, rose accidentally beneath it, struck it 

 with its head, and threw the boat, men, and appa- 

 ratus about fifteen feet into the air. It was inverted 

 by the stroke, and fell into the water with its keel 

 upwards. All the people were picked up alive by 

 the fourth boat, excepting one man, who, having 

 got entangled in the boat, fell beneath it, and was 

 unfortunately drowned." Fig. 1110 represents, a, 

 the harpoon ; b, the lance used in the attack. 



1111, 1112.— The Rorqual 



(Balcenoptera Boops, Flem.; Balrenoptera Rorqual, 

 Lacep.). The Rorquals, constituting the genus Ba- 

 lasnoptera, differ from the Greenland whale and its 

 allies in the possession of a small dorsal fin on the 

 lower part of the back (not seen in the position of 

 the pictorial specimen), and a series of longitudinal 

 folds on the skin of the under surface of the body, 

 and particularly the throat and chest. The plates 

 of baleen are short. The food of these animals 

 consists of fishes, and especially herrings and other 

 species which go in shoals, and they engulf multi- 

 tudes at once in the abyss of their capacious mouth. 

 They are remarkable for the rapidity and ease of 

 their movements: they dart along or dive with 

 almost unequalled impetuosity, and are dangerous 

 to attack. From this cause, as well as from the 

 small quantity of blubber they afford, and the in- 

 ferior quality of the baleen, they are seldom chased 

 by the crews of the whaling-vessels. The species 

 do not seem to be as yet well determined. 



The Great Rorqual is one of the largest, if not 

 the largest, of this gigantic race of beings, often 

 exceeding a hundred feet in length. Its native 

 regions are the polar seas, where it is seen both in 

 troops and pairs, the paired males and females 

 exhibiting devoted attachment to each other. The 

 rorqual is more restless, more suspicious, and fiercer 

 than the common whale, and when struck by the 

 harpoon descends with such velocity as often to 

 snap the line. It was an individual of this species 

 which, in the month of November, 1827, was stranded 

 near Ostend, and of which the skeleton was subse- 

 quently exhibited in London and Paris. The length 

 of the skeleton was ninety-five feet ; the head 

 measured twenty-two feet. The spinal column 

 consisted of sixty -two vertebra? ; the ribs were 

 fourteen on each side. The expanse of the caudal 

 paddle was twenty-two feet and a half. The op- 

 portunity of examining the internal anatomy of this 

 animal was lost, a circumstance lamented in indig- 

 nant but just terms by M. Van Breda, whose 

 memoir on the subject is published in Cuviers 

 ' Histoire Naturelle des Cetaces.' This writer 

 states that besides (he usual plates of baleen, the 

 animal had at the tip of its muzzle a thick tuft of 

 rounded horny filaments, or rather coarse hairs, 

 united at the root by a common membrane, and 

 divided into finer threads at their points; these 

 filaments were of different lengths, some exceeding 

 three feet. This peculiarity had not, we believe, 

 been previously noticed. The weight of this indi- 

 vidual when captured was 480,000 pounds, and 

 4000 gallons of oil were extracted from the blubber. 

 Weight of the skeleton alone, 70,000 pounds. Fig. 

 1020 represents the skeleton. 



Here we close our survey of the specimens of the 

 Cetacea which are contained in our Pictorial 

 Museum. It is a class which yet requires much 

 elucidation; its species are still involved in con- 

 fusion, and of many almost everything is yet to be 

 learned. They have seldom indeed been contem- 

 plated in their native regions by professed naturalists 

 — hence, the changes they may (many of them, at 

 least) undergo in~their progress from youth to 

 maturity, the duration of their lives, the rapidity of 

 their growth, and many points in their economy are 

 yet desiderata. Who has counted the years of the 

 whale; who has marked an individual from birth, 

 till, one of the patriarchs of its oceanic race, it has 

 failed beneath the burden of ages? Who has 

 tracked these colossal beings in their migrations, or 

 patiently studied their nicer instincts, their less pro- 

 minent manners and habits ?— Their ways are hid- 

 den in the deep, and the little that we know of them 

 is the result of accumulated, but fortuitous observa- 

 tion, to which commerce has impelled a daring 

 class of men, whose great object is their destruction. 

 Much information will be doubtless added from 

 time to time, but after all, many points will neces- 

 sarily remain beyond our powers of acquisition. 



We may conclude by observing that the chace of 

 the whale was carried on by the Norwegians as 

 early as the ninth century, principally, as it would 

 appear, for the sake of its flesh, which was accounted 



a delicacy. Formerly a species of whale abounded 

 in the Bay of Biscay, and was killed by the inha- 

 bitants of the coast for the same object, till at length 

 it was driven away from that bay by incessant per- 

 secution ; the Biscayan mariners then carried the 

 navigation farther and farther from their own shores, 

 till at last they approached the coasts of Iceland, 

 Greenland, and Newfoundland ; and thus was com- 

 menced, in the course of the sixteenth century, the 

 northern whale fishery as pursued in modern times; 

 the object being not the flesh of the animal, but the 

 blubber and baleen. 



We have now, before leaving the Mammalia, to 

 refer to several new pictorial specimens, illustrative 

 of various groups, and to be regarded in the light 

 of additions to our collection, subsequent to our 

 notice of the orders and families to which they 

 respectively belong. Some of the species are indeed 

 duplicates ; others, however, are for the first time 

 introduced into our Pictorial Museum, and merit 

 particular attention. 



ADDITIONS TO THE QUADRTJMANA. 

 1113. — The Douc, or Cocuix-Chixa Monkey 

 (Setnnopithecus nemaius, F. Cuv.). Pygathrix ne- 

 mseus, Geoffr. ; Lasiopyga nema^us, 111. 



The Douc, a genuine example of the genus Sem- 

 nopithecus, is one of the most beautiful, if not the 

 most beautiful, of all the monkey race. We give 

 the following description Irom a fine adult male in 

 the Paris Museum. The face is naked, and of an 

 orange colour, surrounded by full long whiskers of 

 a glossy whiteness; the fur of the forehead is black- 

 ish, passing into delicate grizzled grey, which is the 

 colour of the whole head, the back, the sides, and 

 abdomen, each hair having annulations of white and 

 dusky black to the number of eleven or twelve. 

 From the eyebrows to the ears extends a pencil of 

 chestnut red ; the throat is white ; a band, or gorget, 

 of chestnut red extends across the top of the chest 

 from shoulder to shoulder, succeeded by a band of 

 black spreading over the top of each shoulder. The 

 forearms, the tail, and a square patch above its root 

 are of a snowy white. The knees, the legs, and the 

 tarsal portion of the feet are of a rich chestnut; the 

 fingers, the toes, and the thighs are black ; space 

 round the callosities, white : callosities and naked 

 skin of the palms, yellow. Fur, full and soft. 

 Length of head and body to root of tail, two feet 

 one inch. Native country, Cochin-China. 



The douc has never been brought alive to Europe, 

 and of its habits and manners we have but meagre 

 information. Bezoar-stones are said to be frequently 

 found in its stomach, a proof that it is sacculated, as 

 in the other Semnopitheci, and also in the Colobi. 



In the ' Magasin de Zoologie ' (• Voyage autour du 

 Monde de la Corvette La Favorite') I836, it is 

 stated that " these animals live in troops, more or 

 less numerous, in the vast woods which cover the 

 country along the shore ; and their manners are 

 certainly far from being wild, as has been supposed. 

 They are, indeed, little troubled by the presence of 

 man, and often come near to the habitations of the 

 Cochin-Chinese, who appear to offer them but little 

 molestation, and do not attempt to draw from the 

 beautiful fur of the doucs all the advantages which 

 might be obtained from such a source. However, 

 the incursions of the sailors of the corvette La 

 Favorite in a very short time inspired these animals 

 with such terror, and so rapid was their flight, that, 

 numerous as they were, they were not procured 

 without difficulty." 



Though Buffon, on the authority of M. de Poivre, 

 gave the name of douc to this species, as its native 

 appellation, nevertheless it would seem that such is 

 not the term by which it is known in Cochin-China. 

 M. Rey, the captain of a French merchantman, who 

 visited that country in 1819-20, informs us that these 

 monkeys are there called Venam, which, he says, 

 signifies ' men of the woods.' M. Rey had no diffi- 

 culty in killing numbers of them, but it was not 

 without great trouble that he succeeded in capturing 

 living individuals. So numerous were they, that on 

 one occasion, in the course of a few hours, a hun- 

 dred were slaughtered. Desirous, however, of taking 

 some alive, for the purpose of transporting them, if 

 possible, to France, he set to work in earnest. In 

 the attempt many were shot dead, and others 

 wounded; and as they fell, the survivors collected 

 round the dead and dying, endeavouring to carry 

 them off into the deeper parts of the forest. Three 

 young ones were ultimately secured, which held so 

 fast round the bodies of their dams that it required 

 no small effort to detach them. They did not reach 

 France alive. M. Rey remarks that this species of 

 monkey greatly resembles the orang-outan in stature 

 and inoffensive manners, inhabiting the mountains 

 and tops of the loftiest trees, and living on fruit. 

 Its fur he describes as being exceedingly fine. 

 Some of the males measured, when standing up- 

 right, about four feet four inches in height. 



ADDITIONS TO THE TJRSID/E. 

 1114. — The Rufous Coati 

 (Nasua rvfa). We have already alluded to the 

 genus Nasua as one of those forms which link the 

 Uisidse, on one side, with the Mustelidae, or Weasel 

 tribe, of the other. The rufous coati in habits and 

 manners agrees with the brown coati, living in pairs 

 or small troops in the forests of South America, and 

 climbing with great facility ; but their mode of 

 climbing does not resemble that of the cat or the 

 squirrel, or of any of the light-limbed and sharp- 

 clawed animals ;— they do not run up a tree and 

 bound from branch to branch, but proceed in the 

 same heavy manner as on the ground ; and it is be- 

 cause they can apply the palm of their paws, or the 

 sole of their hind-feet, fairly to any object (not, 

 however, grasping it), that they are enabled thus to 

 climb. They use their feet, in fact, in the same 

 manner as man, and their mode of climbing re- 

 sembles his, except that their paws do not grasp ; in 

 descending, they generally come down hincl-quarters 

 foremost,, carefully availing themselves of every 

 projection. The bear always does so, and, as far as 

 we have observed, the racoon also. 



1115.— The Racoon 



(Procyon Lator~). We have little to add to our 

 previous account of this species : Buffon, in speak- 

 ing of the localities tenanted by the racoon, says, 

 " This animal is originally from the southern regions 

 of America: it is not found in the Old World; at 

 least, travellers who have spoken of the animals of 

 Africa and the East Indies, make no mention of it. 

 It is, on the contrary, very common in the warm 

 climates of America, and especially in Jamaica, 

 where it inhabits the mountains, whence it descends 

 to feed upon the sugar-canes. It is not found in 

 Canada, nor in the other northern portions of this 

 continent : nevertheless, it does not greatly fear the 

 cold ; M. Klein brought up one at Dantzick, and 

 that which we had has passed a whole night with 

 its feet locked up in the ice without experiencing 

 any ill effects." As respects the racoon not in- 

 habiting Canada. Buffon is most certainly wrong. 

 It is even eaten in Canada, as we are positively in- 

 formed by a gentleman who has seen it brought to 

 the table. j)r, Richardson informs us that the 

 racoon " inhabits the southern parts of the fur dis- 

 tricts, being found as far north as Red River, in 

 lat. 50°, from which quarter about one hundred 

 skins are procured by the Hudson's Bay Company. 

 If there is no mistake as to the identity of this spe- 

 cies, the racoon extends farther north on the shores 

 of the Pacific than it does on the eastern side of the 

 Rocky Mountains. Dixon and Portlock obtained 

 cloaks of racoon skins from the natives of Cook's 

 river, in lat. 60° ; and skins, supposed to be those of 

 racoon, were also seen at Nootka Sound by Captain 

 Cook. Lewis and Clark expressly state that the 

 racoon at the mouth of the Columbia is the same 

 with the animal so common in the United States." 

 To this Dr. Richardson adds, " its flesh, when fed 

 on vegetables, is reported to be good." 



In captivity the racoon exhibits much cunning 

 and a resentful temper. M. Blanquart des Salines, 

 who kept one of these animals, states that a servant 

 had one day struck his racoon a few blows with a 

 whip: "in vain did the man afterwards attempt, a 

 reconciliation ; neither eggs, nor food most coveted 

 by the animal, availed in pacifying it. At his ap- 

 proach it enters into a sort of fury ; with sparkling 

 eyes it darts at him, and utters loud cries of suffering. 

 Whatever is presented to it at that time, if. refuses 

 until its enemy has disappeared. Its accents of 

 ano-er are very singular; sometimes one might fancy 

 them the whistling of the curlew, at others the 

 hoarse bark of an old dog. If any one beats it, or 

 if it is attacked by an animal which it thinks 

 stronger than itself, it opposes no resistance ; like a 

 hedgehog, it conceals its head and its paws, and 

 forms its body into a ball : no cry escapes it, and in 

 this positien'it would suffer death." With much 

 caprice, there is no little cunning in the character 

 of the racoon, mixed with malice and a fondness for 

 destruction. The writer above quoted informs us 

 that the chain of his racoon is sometimes broken, 

 " and that liberty renders it insolent ; it takes pos- 

 sesion of a room, and will suffer no one to come 

 near it ; it is not without difficulty that it can be 

 refettered. Since it has lived with me its slavery 

 has frequently been suspended Without losing 

 sio-ht of it, I often allow it to walk with its chain, 

 and every time a thousand little gambols express to 

 me its gratitude. It is quite the contrary, however, 

 when it escapes itself: it then rambles sometimes 

 for three or four days together over the neignbour- 

 ing roofs, and descends at night into the court- 

 yards, enters the poultry-roosts, strangles the fowls 

 and eats their heads, attacking more especially the 

 Guinea fowls. Its chain did not render it more 

 gentle but only more circumspect: it then em- 

 ployed artifice, and familiarized the poultry with it, 



