SWIMMING ANIMALS
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can enjoy its meal.
For some of thèsesquids are several
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feet in length, with tentacles thirty or more. feet long;
armed. with many powerful suckers. -It needs a. monster
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like the whale to tackle them, and many whales are caught
with great scars upon their bodies that bear witness to .the
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mighty struggles that have taken place in the deep-waters
of the ocean.
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Among other toothed .whales the Killer whales (Orca
gladjator) are of interest, because they hunt in packs, feeding
on
sh and seals and even harrying the larger whales
themselves.
The common porpoise and the dolphins are
also representatives of this group, the porpoises being
among the smallest of the tôothed whales.
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The
whales do not possess typical teeth:.
They have instead long thin plates of a horny texture, set
close together all around the upper jaw.
This is the baleein,
or whalebone, that_was once soiashionable in ladies’ attire,
but has now gone rather out of demand for that purpose.
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Each-plate of whalebone is frayed ont along its.inner edge
to form a mass of félted bres (Plate 42).
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such teeth the whale obviously canno®n any
powerful animal.
It cannot bite or chew.
lnstead it feeds
on the hordes of minute animals {rem a quarter of an inch
to an inch in length, that drift in countless myriads in the
waters of the sea and
to form part of that drifting
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community known as the plankton.
Opening wide
mouth the whale takes in a greatgulp of water with all
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its contained living animals.
Then closing its mouth it
raises its tongue and forces the water out through the
whalebone sieve and the animals which remain behind are
swallowed.
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The Right whales (Fig. 21) are a typical example of this
group, as are.also the Humpbacks' and Rorquals.
Of thèse
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the Blue whale or Sibbald’s Rorqual (Balænoptera sibbaldi);