. The animal kingdom; based upon the writings of the eminent naturalists, Audubon, Wallace, Brehm, Wood and others. Mammals; Zoology. ^irfr|eg6|rrr|c£:|rrf|s3^|rn|^^i|ffr|g§?|rrr|cg^inT|4g'|r[r|#^fr|0|ffr^g'|frr[i^. CHAPTER I. THE RIGHT V/HALES. rrf [fr THE CETACEA—THE FAMILY —THE GREENLAND WHALE—ITS MODE OF RESPIRATION— ITS BLUBBER—WHALEBONE—THE YOUNG WHALE—ENEMIES OF THE WHALE—THE WHALE FISHERY—AMERICAN WHALERS—MODE OF HUNTING THE WHALE—THE HARPOON AND BOMB- LANCE—AUSTRALIAN RIGHT WHALE—SCRAG WHALE—BISCAY WHALE—GENUS EUBAL/ENA— GENERA HUNTERIUS, CAPERIA, MACLEAYIUS. THE order at wh
. The animal kingdom; based upon the writings of the eminent naturalists, Audubon, Wallace, Brehm, Wood and others. Mammals; Zoology. ^irfr|eg6|rrr|c£:|rrf|s3^|rn|^^i|ffr|g§?|rrr|cg^inT|4g'|r[r|#^fr|0|ffr^g'|frr[i^. CHAPTER I. THE RIGHT V/HALES. rrf [fr THE CETACEA—THE FAMILY —THE GREENLAND WHALE—ITS MODE OF RESPIRATION— ITS BLUBBER—WHALEBONE—THE YOUNG WHALE—ENEMIES OF THE WHALE—THE WHALE FISHERY—AMERICAN WHALERS—MODE OF HUNTING THE WHALE—THE HARPOON AND BOMB- LANCE—AUSTRALIAN RIGHT WHALE—SCRAG WHALE—BISCAY WHALE—GENUS EUBAL/ENA— GENERA HUNTERIUS, CAPERIA, MACLEAYIUS. THE order at which we have now arrived contains some of the largest animals of the world. In land animals, whose weight has to be supported by limbs, there is evidently a limit to their size; while aquatic animals, buoyed up by the dense medium of water on every side, and surrounded by an inexhaustible supply of food, attain to enormous dimensions. The Cetacea are mammals deprived entirely of hinder limbs. The trunk of the body is prolonged into a thick tail terminated by a broad fin which resembles in its general shape that of a fish, but is entirely com- posed of an expansion of the skin, supported by a tough cartilaginous substance. This tail, instead of being placed vertically, is horizontal, thus enabling the animals to plunge into the depths of the ocean, and rise again to the surface. The head is joined to the body without any apparent neck, and the fore-limbs ai^e so flattened and hidden in the skin that they may easily be mistaken for pectoral fins. Dissection, however, shows that they present, under a modified shape, bones and fingers cor- responding to those met with in the lion and the bat. Constructed entirel)' for swimming, the Cetacea are strictly confined to the waters; nevertheless they breathe air by means of lungs, and are therefore per- petually compelled to come to the surface for the purpose of respiration. Their blood is hot; they bring
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectm, booksubjectzoology
