A very considerable portion of the feeding-grounds is occupied by what is termed. 'green water,' which warms with minute life, and has been carefully examined and described by Dr. Scoresby. The smallness of the gullet is only fitted for swallowing small animals, such as the Clio borealis, numerous specimens of which (the ' Whale's Food' of the Greenland Whalers) will be found in the preparation No. 323 A of the Physiological Series of the 'Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. This small mollusk is said to consti tute the chief support of the Mysticete, and the structure and dispo sition of the whalebone-plates explain how these or any other small species of animal are retained in the capacious mouth of their devourer, s while the water taken in along with them drains through the inter stices of the plates. When the Mysticete feeds, it swims rapidly below the surface with open jaws ; a stream of water enters them, and with it myriads of small marine animals ; the water finds an outlet at the sides, but the thick internal hairy apparatus of the whalebone does not permit one of these animals to escape.
Nine or ten months is supposed to be the period of utero-gestation, and the mother is so attached to her young one, or 'sucker,' as it is termed, that it is often struck as a snare to the affectionate parent, for she will not leave it, and falls a victim to her maternal love. Dr. Scoresby relates instances of this kind which cannot be perused, much less witnessed, without great pain by any person of ordinary humanity. Such a mode of capture seems hardly justifiable, whilst it must be ruinous to future prospects.
This species is generally found alone or in pairs, excepting when many individuals are attracted to some abundant feeding-ground or to a desired locality, such as the vicinity of icebergs.
To the Esquimaux and the Greenlander this species is all in all. They eat the flesh and fat with indescribable relish. The membranes of the abdomen serve them for clothing, and the thin transparent peritoneum admits light through the windows of their huts whilst it keeps out the weather. The bones are made into props for their tents, or aid in the formation of their boats, and supply them with harpoons and spears for the capture of the seal and greater sea-birds. The sinews, divided into filaments, are used as thread for sewing their dress, &e. Some have stated that pickled and boiled blubber is palatable, and that the tail, first parboiled and then fried, is agreeable eating. The flesh of the young whale is said to be by no means indifferent food. To civilised nations, the oil made from its fat or
blubber, and the whalebone, have long made it a great commercial object. rFISDERIES, in Anre AND Sc. Div.1 B. marginate, the Weatern-Aurrtralian Whale, has very long and slender baleen, with a rather broad black edge on the outer or straight side. From the character of the baleen Dr. Gray considers this a distinct species.
B. australia, the Cape Whale. It is the Right Whale of South Sea Whalers, the Southern Whalebone Whale of Nunn, the Common Black Whale of Sir James Ross. It Inhabits the South Seas, and is of a uniform black colour.
B. Japonica, the Japan Whale. It is an inhabitant of the coasts of Japan, which it visits periodically. Its head is covered with barnacles. Only the baleen has been seen in England. The species has been described from Chinese drawings.
B. antaretieo, the 3,?ew Zealand Whale. A spet.tics described by Dr. J. E. Gray as 11. A nlipodarunt, from a very accurate drawing of a specimen taken in Jackson's Bay, New Zealand. It is the Tuku Peru of the natives The specimen was 60 feet in length. The following cut is reduced from Dr. Gray's plate.
B. gibbosa, tho Scrag-Whale, is regarded as a species by Dr. J. K Gray. it is an inhabitant of the Atlantic Ocean. " It is near akin to the Finback, but instead of a fin upon its back, the ridge of the after part of its back is eel-rigged with half-a-dozen knobs or knuckles." (Dudley.) The remaining genera of the Balernithe have either fins or humps on their-backs, and are called and Hump-Backs.
The genus Megaptera includes the Hump-Backed Whales. They are easily known from the Finners in being shorter and more robust, tho skull nearly one-fourth the entire length, the head wider between the eyes, the mouth larger, the lip warty, and the nose large and rounded ; the plaits of the belly and throat are broad. The skull is intermediate between that of Balecna and Balmnoptera.
M. longiniana, Johnston's Hump-Backed Whale. It was described by Dr. Johnston from a specimen cast ashore at Newcastle. It is an inhabitant of the North Sea, and haxbeen taken at the mouth of the Mans. It is the Balama longimana of Rudolph', and the Biennia Boops, or Keporkak, of Esehricht, who says it is the most common whale in the Greenland sena.
M. Americana, the Bermuda Hump-Back, is of a black colour, with a white belly, and has its head covered with tubercles. It is the Babrna nodosa of Bonnaterra. It is found at Bermuda from 31arch to the end of May, when it departs. The baleen of this whale is extensively imported from Bermuda.