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NATURALIST'S LIBRARY.

CONDUCTED BY

SIR WILLIAM JARDINE, BART.
F. R. S. E, F. L. S., &c. &c.

MAMMALIA.

VOL. VI.

ON THE

ORDINARY CETACEA

OR

WHALES.

"Ah! pour les peindre, il faudroit le pinceau de Buffon."

Lacepède.

EDINBURGH:

W. H. LIZARS, 3, ST. JAMES' SQUARE;
S. HIGHLEY, 32, FLEET STREET, LONDON; AND
W. CURRY, JUN. AND CO. DUBLIN.

Bayerische

EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY W. H. LIZARS

NATURAL HISTORY

OF THE

ORDINARY CETACEA

OR

WHALES.

ILLUSTRATED BY THIRTY-TWO COLOURED PLATES
NUMEROUS WOOD-CUTS, WITH MEMOIR
AND PORTRAIT OF LACEPEDE. J

EDINBURGH:

W. H. LIZARS, 3, ST. JAMES' SQUARE;
S. HIGHLEY, 32, FLEET STREET, LONDON; AND
W. CURRY, JUN. AND CO. DUBLIN.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Ir will occur to many of our Readers that the order of Mammalia, to which the present Volume of the Naturalist's Library is devoted, viz. the Cetacea or the ordinary or fish-like Whales, have some claims to a place in our series. It is true that these tribes have none of those rural charms which are connected with our flocks and herds; and still less can they attract the eye, as do the rich and golden hues which adorn the humming-bird and paint the wings of the butterfly; though it will be found that, even in this respect, they possess a richness and variety not generally supposed. But leaving this; when we consider the singular peculiarities in the constitution of Whales,-that they are warm-blooded mammalia, that is to say, that they breathe as the terrestrial mammalia, and suckle their young, and yet are as completely aquatic as true fish; and when, moreover, we reflect that they vary in size from the dimensions of a salmon to a length of

a

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