40 
MAMMALIA. 
to the entrance of the oesophagus, and thence into the stomach. 
This done, the Whale then lowers its jaw again, and recommences 
its easy mode of feeding. 
It seems difficult to us to believe that the Whale feeds only 
on these diminutive crustaceans. Why should it reject medusae, 
mollusks, and even some fishes P 
But the Whale does not confine itself to moving about, to going 
from place to place, to travelling, or to feeding, in order to keep 
up its immense organism. It is necessary also for it to perpetuate 
its species. 
At the beginning of spring, then, one sees the males going 
about by themselves, in search of the females. We soon meet 
with groups of six or eight Whales, seldom more. When a male 
and female have paired for the season, the happy couple isolate 
themselves from the little group, and set out, side by side, on 
their nuptial tour. They travel, they play, they feed together. 
On these occasions they make gigantic leaps ; they turn over and 
over many times, the water is agitated, and boils around them 
for a very great distance. 
The males now go in advance to choose the maritime creeks in 
which the females may give birth to their young. After having 
inspected these places, they return. The females then come and 
instal themselves in a well- sheltered bay, over a deep layer of 
sand. They bring forth their young in the middle of autumn. 
Scarcely is the young Whale born before it turns over and 
swims round its mother. She now places herself on her side to 
suckle it, in such a manner that her teat is on a level with the 
surface of the water.* After a great many useless attempts, the 
young one takes the teat between its palate, which is not yet 
armed with perfect whale-bone plates, and its tongue, which is 
already much developed, and sucks in its mother’s milk. What a 
nurse, and what a nursling ! How many quarts of milk does it 
absorb at each suction P 
But the young WTiale is soon weaned. At the end of six weeks 
or two months, its whalebone plates have grown, and it can catch 
its own food itself in the bosom of its great nurse, the Ocean ! Its 
mother has for it an ardent and excessive love. She watches over, 
she guides, she defends it ; to save its life she sacrifices her own. 
* There is no externally prominent teat or mammella. — E d. 
