THE 



AMERICAN NATURALIST. 



Vol. XXXVIII. September, ig04. No. 453- 



SOME obsp:rvations ox rorouals oi-r- 



SOUTI I E RN N EW 1< OU N I) I .A N 1) . 



GLOVER M. ALLEN. 



Until very recently it has been the u.sa^^e, in book.s on nat- 

 ural histoi), to picture Cetacea, when in their native element, as 

 floating lightly on the surface of the water and sending forth 

 from the blow-holes great columns of spray which bi eak and lall 

 in showers over the back. In the works of the nldri \vriicr>, 

 as Bonnaterre and Lacepede, the s])outs of whalc> arr repre- 

 sented as solid columns of water, of nearly unilonn dianicier 

 throughout, which after reaching their maxinumi height, air\e 

 over, either to the front or to the rear, and, breaking -.ligluly, 

 vanish away. Such representations, howe\er, were reco^ni/ed 

 as entirely inadequate, being merely the conventional xagariesol 

 the artists. K. E. von Baer ('64) seems to have been nmon- the 

 first to attempt an accurate delineation of the whaled >pout. 1 le 

 figures a Finback whale in the act ot blowni.i;, the column 

 being a vertical one, expanding very .slightly until the niaxinium 

 height is reached, when it bushes out and gradually l)eu.me> 

 dispersed. Henking {:or) also re])re>ents ni a very diagram- 



