264 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. m, mi. 



REPRESENTATIVE SPECIES OF UNITED STATES CETACEANS. Copied by the Author. 



F \eLThof3tl0ft Phin (De ^ Mnm Mtev Flower - ^*^ e K P , t c ^ T (Gto i ,f W^ w ^ F iX m ? 2 d ?:^ t ? r '--The Sperm Whale Porpoise (HyperoortoH^/rA^,). After 



l^engtn or adult lUtt. Trans. Zodl. Soc. of Lond., Vol. 8, PI. 30. Length of adult 18 to Blake. Length of adult 25ft. 



*%<^Sco$^^ From Vi S f £ t-The Narwhal (Momritm monoccros). After Elliott, Fig. S.-The Sperm Whale (Phwta- macrocephalv^. Prom 



' aller ^ ope ' ^^Siti or adult about 10ft. Length of adult 10 to 14ft. Goode, after Scammon. Leneth of adult male 84ft. 



Length c 



m *' t js^li^Wf^iHii* After Elliott. Length Fig. 6.-The "Herring-Hog" Phomna communis). Fromapho- Fig. 9.-The Bowhead Whale (Balama miMariw). From Goode, 



tograph by the U. S. Pish Commission. Length of adult rather after Scammon. Length of adult male -47ft. 

 more than 4ft. 



have earned this last name from their habit of puffing 

 and grunting as they disport themselves in the surf or as 

 they roll in the breakers at the mouths of harbors and 

 rivers. These Herring Hogs are very destructive of sev- 

 eral species of the small edible fish, and of oysters, but 

 they in turn are often attacked and killed by the Por- 

 poises. 



To represent the next Family, the Bottle-nose Whales, 

 I have given a figure of Hyperoddon bidens, but very 

 little is known of these forms and the nomenclature of 

 the group is not in a very satisfactory condition. 



Passing next to the Family of the true Sperm 

 Whales (Physeteridw), we find them represented by 

 the Giant Sperm and the Pigmy Sperm Whales. 



The Sperm Whale or Cachalot (P. macrocephalus) is a 

 very well-known Cetacean, one of wide distribution and 

 of great commercial importance (Fig. 8). In this species 

 the male may attain the enormous length of 84ft., where- 



as the females are not more than one-third as large, and 

 are slenderer. In color these animals are of a blackish 

 brown above, paler on their sides, and grayish on the 

 under parts; very old ones are gray on top of the head 

 and about the nostrils. They feed on small fish principally, 

 and squids; it is related that several hundred mackerel 

 have been taken from the stomach of a third grown one. 

 All times of the year is the breeding season for them, and 

 one at a birth is the rule, never more than two. The 

 female nurses her young by reclining quietly on her side, 

 as she floats passively on the surface of the ocean. The 

 period of gestation is said to be ten months. 



Its actions and habits under various circumstances are 

 familiar to the most of us, and have been well described 

 by Scammon; the "blowing" of this whale, and the use- 

 ful products it yields, I have already alluded to above. 



Turning to the Suborder Mysticete of our List, we find 

 a splendid array of species representing the animals 



known as the Whalebone Whales, all of which are crea- 

 tures of great size, and valuable for the products they 

 yield to men. Of no little importance among these is the 

 whalebone of commerce, but this is principally obtained 

 from the Bowhead Whale (Fig. 9) 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, in- 

 cluded under these general terms, one of the most abund- 

 ant of which is, perhaps, a kind of winged or pteropod 

 mollusk, the Clio borealis, which occurs in the northern 

 seas, floating in great masses. When the Bowhead is 

 feeding it moves with considerable velocity near the sur- 

 face, its jaws being open to allow the passage of currents 

 of water into the cavity of the mouth and through the 



