Chapter III: Iii.--The Earless Seal Family (phocidæ)

General Characteristics--Peculiar Formation
of the Hind Legs--Dentition--Swimming--THE
COMMON SEAL--Range--Fight between a Seal and
Salmon--Colour--Appearance--Annual Catch--Use of Skins in
Greenland--Habits--THE RINGED SEAL--Appearance--Various
Names--Odour--Flesh--Skin Clothes--Haunts--Modes
of Capture--Range--THE GREENLAND, OR SADDLEBACK
SEAL--Habits--Appearance--Names--Range--Migrations--“Seals’
Weddings”--Five Stages of Colour--Females--Weight--Seal
Fisheries--Hunting--Implements of Slaughter--Various
Operations--The Sealers--Oil, Skins, &c.--THE BEARDED SEAL--THE
GREY SEAL--THE MONK SEAL--THE CRESTED OR BLADDER-NOSE
SEAL--Range--Size--Ferocity--Character of the so-called
Crest--Dentition--Colour--THE ELEPHANT SEAL--Peculiar
Range--Proboscis--Scammon’s Account--Habits--Hunting--Hardships
of the Hunters--Recreations of the Men--Blubber, Oil, and
Skins--ROSS’S LARGE-EYED SEAL--THE SEA LEOPARD--WEDDELL’S
SEAL--THE CRAB-EATING SEAL--Concluding Remarks--The Slaughter
of Seals--Remedies 231

ORDER CETACEA.--WHALES.

Whales--Vulgar Notions--Characteristics External and
Internal--Larynx--Tail--Skeleton--Classification--THE
TOOTHED WHALES--ZEUGLODONS--SQUALODONS--PHOCODONS--RIVER
DOLPHINS--SUSU, OR GANGETIC
DOLPHIN--Description--Habits--Teeth--INIA--PONTOPORIA--ZIPHIOID
WHALES--CUVIER’S WHALE--VAN BENEDEN’S WHALE--SOWERBY’S
WHALE--NEW ZEALAND BERARDIUS--BOTTLEHEAD, OR COMMON
BEAKED WHALE--SPERM WHALES, OR CACHALOTS--SPERM
WHALE--Description--Range--Fishery--Incidents
of the Chase--Habits--Harpooned--Treatment of
the Carcass--SHORT-HEADED WHALE, OR SNUB-NOSED
CACHALOT--DOLPHINS--CAAING, OR PILOT WHALE--RISSO’S
GRAMPUS--COMMON PORPOISE--KILLER WHALE, OR ORCA--Ferocity--TRUE
DOLPHINS--COMMON DOLPHIN--BOTTLE-NOSE DOLPHIN--WHITE
WHALE--NARWHAL--THE WHALEBONE WHALES--Whalebone--GREENLAND,
OR RIGHT WHALE--BISCAY WHALE--JAPAN WHALE--CAPE WHALE--SOUTH
PACIFIC WHALE--Description of the Greenland Whale--Their
Food and Mode of Feeding--Habits--Hunting--Treatment of
Carcass--HUMP-BACKED WHALES--FIN WHALES, OR RORQUALS--SIBBALD’S
RORQUAL--SULPHUR-BOTTOM WHALE--COMMON RORQUAL, OR
RAZOR-BACK--LESSER RORQUAL--Concluding Remarks 245

ORDER SIRENIA (THE MANATEES).

Introductory Remarks--Mermaids--Position--General Characteristics
of the Order--STELLER’S RHYTINA--Habits--Extinct--Dugong--Range--
Habits--Uses--Teeth--MANATEE--Distribution--Peculiar Mouth--Mode
of Feeding--Story of “Patcheley,” a Tame Manatee--Halitherium and
other Fossil Forms 268

ORDER PROBOSCIDEA (ELEPHANTS).

Order Proboscidea--Antiquity of the Elephant--Referred
to in the Bible--Mentioned in the Apocrypha--War
Elephants--Their Accoutrements--Hannibal’s Elephants--Elephants
amongst the Romans--Skull--Dentition--Vertebræ--Odd
Delusion about its Legs--Proboscis--Species--THE
INDIAN ELEPHANT--Size--Range--Habits--Various Modes of
Capture--Keddah--Used as a Labourer or Nurse--Sagacity--White
Elephants--THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT--Characteristics--Range--Habits
and Haunts--Hunting--Pitfalls--Aggageers
Chasing--Elephant-Shooting--How the Natives Cut it up--FOSSIL
ELEPHANTS AND THEIR ALLIES--Absurd Stories--MAMMOTH--How
it was first Found--Story of the Fourth or Benkendorf’s
Discovery--Range--MASTODON--DINOTHERIUM 273

ORDER HYRACOIDEA (CONIES).

What is the Coney?--Mention in the Bible--General
Appearance--Real Place--Range--Varieties--Coney of the
Bible--Cape Coney--Ashkoko of Abyssinia--Mr. Winwood Reade’s
Account of the Habits of the Cape Coney--Skull, Dentition,
Ribs, &c. 292

ORDER UNGULATA (HOOFED QUADRUPEDS).

CHAPTER I.

PERISSODACTYLA--THE EQUIDÆ, OR HORSE FAMILY.

Order
_UNGULATA_--Divisions--PERISSODACTYLA--Characteristics--
EQUIDÆ--Species--Descent--First Domestic Horses in Europe--Used
for Food--Mention of the Horse in the Bible--War-Chariots--The
Horse among the Greeks and Romans--In Britain--Attempts
to Improve the Breed--Colour--Teeth--“The Mark”--The
Foot--Skull--Disease from the Gad-fly--RACE-HORSE--TROTTING
HORSE OF AMERICA--DRAY HORSE--SHETLAND PONY--ARAB AND
BARB--PERSIAN HORSE--WILD HORSES IN AMERICA--Habits--Byron’s
“Mazeppa”--Capture and Breaking in--WILD HORSES IN AUSTRALIA--THE
ASS--Species--Stripes--Characteristics--MULE AND HINNY--WILD
ASS OF TIBET--ONAGER--WILD ASS OF ABYSSINIA--ZEBRAS--BURCHELL’S
ZEBRA--QUAGGA--FOSSIL EQUIDÆ--Distribution--HIPPARION 295