45 



brought into New York harbor. It is the whale that was 

 so abundantly captured during the years preceding the 

 Revolution. The skeleton of an adult is in the Museum. 

 The baleen or whalebone is seen in this skeleton, situated 

 as in life; serving the purposes of strainers when the great 

 masses of soft jelly fishes are taken in for food. The water 

 flows out of the mouth through these plates, leaving the 

 jelly food free to be swallowed. The whale most familiar 

 to our coast, and the one seen from vessels crossing the 

 ocean, is the FlN-BACK WHALE, a long and slender kind, 

 related to the great sulphur-bottom and rorqual of the 

 Pacific, which are the longest living animals ; reaching 

 near a hundred feet in length. 



Hump-back Whale suckling young. 

 From D. Applcton & Co.'s " Elements of Zoology, Science Series." 



Another sub-order embraces the toothed whales; those 

 having the jaws armed with teeth as follows : 



GROUP 48.— The Odontoceti includes four families— 

 which embrace the Sperm Whales, River Porpoises, 

 Dolphins, and Narwhals. 



A specimen of the jaw of a sperm whale is seen under 

 the number of this group. The enormous head of the 

 sperm whale is made up mostly of flesh, forming a great 



