144 DESCRIFTION;'OF A NARWAt. 



If the French naturalist was offended at the gt 

 neric name Monodon, as leading to a false conclu- 

 sion, he ought to have substituted another in its 

 place not liable to such an objection. But in en- 

 deavouring to do this, we are persuaded, he has 

 committed as great, if not a greater error, than the 

 one he was attempting to correct : — Incidit in 

 Scyllam, cupiens evitare Charybdin. 



La Cepede informs us, that according to Wil- 

 loughby, Wormius, and Klein, the name Narwal, 

 (from which La Cepede has formed his generic 

 name Narwalus), is derived from " Nar, which 

 " in many languages of the North, signifies a 

 " dead body, and from Wal or Whal, a whale." 

 Now, from the meaning of the word, as thus ex- 

 plained, it would be natural to conclude, that the 

 species of the genus Narwalus subsisted on the 

 dead or putrid bodies of fishes and other marine 

 animals. But the language of La Cepede himself 

 is hostile to such a conclusion. He informs us, 

 that the food of the Narwal consists of worms and 

 fishes * ; that it often pierces them with its tooth, 

 and by means of its flexile lips conveys tjiem to its 

 mouth. The generic name, therefore, proposed 



* " II aime, parmi les mollusques, ceux que Ton a 

 " nommes planorbes ; il paroit preferer, parmi les pois- 

 " sons, les pkuronectes poks." Hist. Nat. des Cetacees, 



