II 
SS 
Marvels of the Untverse 
DHE HOOD OF WHAITBRS 
BY W. P. PYCRAFT, F.Z.S. 
THE achievement of the impossible has been 
accomplished again and again by Nature! And 
no more convincing illustration of this fact 
could be found than that furnished by the bill 
of fare of certain of the Whales. The Rorquals, 
or Fin-whales, which include the largest animals 
which the world has ever seen, feed for the 
most part on herrings, smelts, and other small 
fish, engulfing them in shoals. As the huge 
cavern of a mouth is opened the luckless crowd, 
striving to flee from the wrath to come, are 
suddenly and irresistibly carried in with the 
intake of water. And to increase the capacity 
of this mouth still further, an enormous pouch of 
skin, recalling that of the pelican, is suspended 
from the lower jaws. To enable its walls to THE LONG-HORNED TEMORA. 
resist the tremendous pressure of the volume of These minute creatures are common in the English Channel 
and other coasted waters. The tribe contains a large number 
WAL? TAKEN im, SirenNgineMing AMG OF WSNCIOM, 3h sctian, cal am dha nds iRerepell fs asarendie ong 
as strong as steel and without its brittleness, dependent. 
run from one end to the other ; thus it is that when the mouth is empty the walls of the pouch are 
thrown into great longitudinal folds or pleats, the pleats answering to the silk pleats of a closed 
umbrella, the tendons to its steel ribs. As soon as the mouth is full, muscles attached to the 
tendons draw in the walls, and the great fleshy tongue is raised towards the roof of the mouth. The 
consequent reduction in the size of the chamber 
drives out the water between the lips. To pre- 
vent the food captured at the expense of so much 
energy being driven out with the stream, huge 
plates of “ 
and having their inner margins frayed out, 
are suspended from the sides of the upper jaw ; 
that is to say, along each side of the roof of 
whalebone,’ tapering to a point 
the mouth. Between the interspaces of these 
plates the water is forced, the frayed inner 
edges forming a most effective strainer and 
preventing the escape of even the smallest 
particles of solid matter. 
The full force of the importance of this 
mechanism was not realized until the amazing 
discovery was made that some species, such 
as the Common Rorqual, subsist, during many 
weeks, at any rate, on a diet of small shrimp- 
like crustacea, which it hunts with its still aes oa aeee ae 
larger relative, the Blue Rorqual the Lanages @ Its home is in the aire seas, a 7 is ae down in 
all the Whales—during August, among other spring by the East Icelandic Polar stream to its spawning place 
south of Iceland. The enormous shoals produced here are 
places, off the coast of Ireland. In spring, this 
carried back, multiplying as they go, along the coasts of Norway 
giant—the Blue Rorqual—contrives to find — during the summer and autumn, 
