88 
MAMMALIA. 
(Alopias vulpes), the very existence of which Scoresby seemed to 
doubt, but which is now so comparatively well-known to naturalists 
and seamen, is also an enemy of the Whale. It is doubtful, 
however, whether it attacks it in life, or only preys upon it after 
death. The Advice (Captain A. Deuchars) once took a dead 
Whale alongside, which this Shark was attacking in dozens, the 
belly being perfectly riddled by them.* The Greenland Shark 
(. Scymnus borealis), though it gorges itself with the dead Whale, 
does not appear to trouble it during life. Martens’s most circum- 
stantial account of the fight between the Whale and Sword-fish 
seems to have originated in a misconception, this name being 
applied by seamen not only to the scomberoid fish ( Xiphias ), but 
also to the Gladiator Dolphin, which, it is well known, fights 
furiously with the Right Whale. The Whale must attain a 
great age, nor does it seem to be troubled with many diseases. 
Whales which are seen floating dead are almost always found to 
have been wounded. They are often killed with harpoon-blades 
embedded deep in the blubber ; and some of these, from the marks 
on them, have been proved to be the remains of fights of a very 
ancient date, and in which the Whale has come off victor.” 
“ Each species of Whale,” remarks Dr. Gray, “ has its own 
peculiar kind of sessile Cirriped ; one has the Coronula , another 
the Diadema, and a third the Tubicinella. They are all sunk in 
the surface of the skin, with the aperture for the free valve, or 
operculum as it is called, alone exposed, and as they grow in size 
the deeper they sink into the skin. Some genera allied to Coronulce 
are found on the shells of Turtles, and on the outer surface of 
shells that are partially covered by the mantle of the animal. 
The Whales have also pedunculated Cirripeds, as Otions, on them ; 
these were early observed : ‘ This Whale hath naturally growing 
upon his backe white things like unto Barnacles.’ ( Purchas , 
Pilgrims, 471).” 
In the genus Eubalcena the head is about a fourth of the entire 
length, and there are some other differences. Only one species 
can with certainty be referred to it, the Cape Whale (E. australis), 
of which a female measured sixty- eight feet in length. In the 
* The sailors have a notion that the Shark does not hite out the pieces, hut cuts 
them hy means of its curved dorsal fin, and seizes them as they sink when severed 
from the victim. This belief is widely and firmly received. 
