make a breathing hole. A third suggestion is due to Scoresby, who was led to make it from having taken out of the stomach of a Narwhal a large skate. He held that with its tusk the Whale empaled the fish and then swallowed it. The Narwhal is not large, 15 feet or so in length. But Lacepède, who was apt to compile with lack of discrimination, speaks of 60 feet long Narwhals. Monodon is purely Arctic, and but three or four specimens have ever been cast up on our shores.
Of true Porpoises, genus Phocaena, there are apparently several species. The genus itself has the following characters:—The teeth are sixteen to twenty-six on each half of each jaw; their crowns are compressed and lobed. The pterygoids do not meet. The dorsal fin has a row of tubercles along its margin.
The Porpoise of our coasts, P. communis, is a smallish species 6 to 8 feet in length. There are two to four hairs present in the young; its colour is black, generally lighter on the belly. The first six cervical vertebrae are fused. The ribs vary in number from twelve to fourteen pairs. It is a gregarious Whale, and will ascend rivers; it has been seen for example in the Seine at Paris. The name Porpoise is often written Porkpisce, which of course shows its origin. Very conveniently it was regarded as a fish, and therefore allowed to be eaten in Lent. The celebrated Dr. Caius, a gourmet as well as a physician and the refounder of a college, invented a particular sauce wherewith to dress this royal dish. Some time since Dr. Gray described a Porpoise from Margate as a distinct species (see p. [342]) on account of the tubercles, which are now known to be a generic character.
Dr. Burmeister's P. spinipennis seems, however, to be really distinct. It was captured near the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. It is more tuberculated on the fin and back, and has fewer teeth (sixteen as against twenty-six).
Mr. True's P. dallii of the Pacific (where the Common Porpoise also occurs) is characterised chiefly by its very long vertebral column, consisting of ninety-eight vertebrae; there are only sixty-eight in the other species. The Eastern genus Neomeris is placed with Phocaena by Dr. Blanford. It practically only differs by the absence of a dorsal fin. It is only about 4 feet long, and inhabits the seas of India, Cape of Good Hope, and Japan. The one species is called N. phocaenoides.
The genus Globicephalus is to be defined thus:—Teeth
seven to twelve on each side, confined to anterior end of jaws. Skull raised into a prominence behind the blow-hole; pterygoids large and in contact. Pectoral fin long and falcate; dorsal fin present. No beak. Vertebral formula C 7, D 11, L 11 to 14, Ca 27 to 29. Six pairs of the ribs are two-headed.
The best known species of the genus is the Ca'ing Whale, G. melas.[[247]] This animal reaches a length of 20 feet, and is thus one of the largest of the Delphinidae. It is gregarious and was, even is now, much hunted in the Faeroe Islands. Its sheep-like habits (embodied in one scientific name deductor) enable it to be easily driven on shore in herds, which are then harpooned. The foetus of this Whale has a few hairs; the number of phalanges in the two middle digits is very great, as many as eleven to fourteen. G. scammoni, G. brachypterus, and G. indicus are other reputed species of the genus allowed by True and Blanford.
Grampus is a genus allied to the last. It has no teeth in the upper jaw, and but three to seven in the lower jaw, near the symphysis of the mandible. The pterygoids are in contact. There is no beak, and the pectoral fin is long. There are twelve pairs of ribs, of which six are two-headed. Apparently there is but one species, G. griseus, known as "Risso's Dolphin." It is a Mediterranean and Atlantic form, and is not common.
The genus Orca has as characters:—Teeth ten to thirteen, long and strong. Pterygoids not quite meeting. Vertebrae C 7, D 11 to 12, L 10, Ca 23. The first two or three fused. The dorsal fin is long and pointed.