WONDERS OF THE WILD

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1043, 4 February 1911, Page 6

WONDERS OF THE WILD

A COASTWISE CETECEAN. TUKSIOPS, THE COWFISH. (By Will Lawsox.) (All Rights Reserved.) Swimming close under tho sholterinj fin of his mother, Tursiops, the cowfish, scarcely two feet long from his peak-to his thick tail, began to see life. Nearby were other mothers, each sheltering her calf, and with a deenly-instilled instinct the youngsters shadowed their parents so carefully that, viewed from above only a pair of keen eyes could have distinguished them. But below water there were keen eyes in plenty that watched the school. Taniwha, the tiger-shark, and Orca, the killer, approached the shallow bay in wbich the cows lyere gathered, approached like sinister shadows, and slipped away again into the green veil of water. If a calf had wandered, there, would have been a swift rush, a snap of jaws, and a distracted cow dash-' ing frantically to and fro. That waj why the cows chose shallow water, for there the killer and the shark could not ' attack from below, and on level torms the cows had a chance of beatinj the marauders off. When the mothers came to the surface to breathe, they broke' water softly, and Tursiops and all his little comrades blew their tiny puffs of exhausted air and inhaled another supply. The cows fed on such sea food as did not need much catchinf:—whalefeed and crabs, and maybe a iisli hero and there taken unawares. Until the calves were able to feed without being suckled, there were no swift pursuits of finny food, no -wild leaping and rolling in laughing waves, such as the great bulls were indulging in out in the windy straits.

Safe in the still waters of Pelorus Sound tho mothers nursed their young, whose growth in size and power increased each day prodigiously. - The mother of Tursiops was seven feet blue-black in colour above and white oelow. Her mouth was in the shape of a blunt beat, of which the lower mandible thrust out beyond the upper. From the upper mandible the head bulged round and heavy. Then her back curved away to the great dorsal' fin, which also described a curved with the point of the fiu pointing backward; from the fin to the "flat whale-taii the curve of the back was'more. pronounced. From the lower jaw to the tail the line of the belly was slightly curved, and the whole appearance of the body was heavy. It seemed incredible that the cowfish could speed through the water at a speed exceeding that of Topoupou, the porpoise, whoso speed as thev race past a steamer, appears to the travellers to be faster than anything iu the sea. But the cowfish are twice the size of the porpoise, and the muscles of the blunt body and in the powerful tail, with its broad flukes that are propellers, are tough, beyond those of anv animal of the laud.

As time passed, Tursiops and the other calves being half-grown, were deserted by their mothers, and formed a school of their own. The whole of the broad Sound was theirs to revel in, and though occasionally a straggler was picked off by tho ever-hungry killers, tfie young school throve, and its individuals gTew bulk and sea-wisdom, until, in the natural order of things, the young cows joined the herds of older cows", while the young bulls hunted with the packs of bulls that had been, seasoned with tho passing- of tho years, nad toughened in wind and muscle with the hunting in the sea, depths. ' 'Tursiops joined these ranks, a lusty youngster nearly eight feet long, and very eager to learn what the grizzled leaders could teach. Foremost in his pack - was a veteran who, in some sta-fray,'"liad--liad oiio. half-of his big: backfin torn away. Nearly. twelve feet this old fellow measured, and in the hunting of the rock-cod, if the fish hid beneatn a boulder tho strong cow-fish thrust his head beneath and sent-the boulder rolling, while his toothed jaws seized the startled prey. -Tursiops followed him closely. AV.hen they were -hunting through the green w::ter a strange vibration shuddered. At first it frightened Tursiops, but soon he learned that it presaged the coming of a great monster with a swiftspinning tail. With all the shoal he would race to tho sound and speed along beside the steamer. Just below the surface the cow-fish swam, one every now and then rising, with black fin ripping tho surface, to blow. Their big eyes stared up at the passengers on the deck©. The eyes of the cowfish faok much like the eyes of a land animal, becauso tho beast can move the eyelids just as easily as can a terrestial mammal. So there i 3 no hard glassy start that fish and most sea-animals have. Beneath the steamer's keel Tursiops rushed enjoying the thrill of her thundering engines. Then, breaking water near her bows, he leaped tea feet into the air, and, crossing the vessel's forefoot, plunged like a salmon into the frothing foam. For a long time, keeping for the greater part just below the surface, the school raced beside the fifteen-knot steamer. Every fifteen minutes the cowfish has to breath, so sometimes .singly, sometimes in half-dozens, tho bulls broke the placid surface with fin and blowing breath. But finding the steamer's speed too slow for their hunting, they left her behind, and steered for the head of Queen tu«rn>rce Sound. Here there were fishing nets set for the flounder and cod that tound the neighbourhood a good feeding ground. And, seeking the cod and flounder, the cowfish went -to their hunting. They made no reckoning for the nets, in which were captive and drowning fish. Straight through the delicate, nets of cord the big n I s Tursiops had early learned that he and his kind must never touch ought that is not free. No baits or drifting refuse moist be touched. Leaving cut nets for fishermen to swear over, they pursued the elusive fish, never able to quite satisfy their gnawing hunger, sav> only .at one time of the year. At such a itime the herring came into the Sound in countless numbers, and huge shoals of cowfish awl of porpoise gathered jto the feast. The jx>rpoise tumbled and dived in their cjueer fashion that is so unlike the straight swimming of the cowfish. Though there appears a strong resemblance between the two .species when seen apart, seen together the difference is plain; tho fins of tho porpoise are rounded, their colour is lighter, slatey grey and white, and besides being smaller they cavort and ! plunge along as though charged with an energy they cannot work off. The cowfish only rises to blow, and their sloping, pointed dorsal fius are quite distinct from these of the porpoise. With steady purpose tho herring were driven further and iurther up the Sound. Killers and sharks joined in the feast, vet though there were thousands of lierrins eaten, millions escaped destruction, and eventually made to sea again, when Tursiops and all the ether cowfish went after them—oui into the Straits and round tho coast to l ort Underwood and tc French Pass. And the old bull with the broken nn was ever a shining example of speed, lursiops was rapidly saining in size and power, and moreover in the fierceness of his hunting. • After the third breeilincr season of Tnrsions, when the herds of bulls and cows had separated once more, ■there came a day when the old bull Lagged in the swift hunting. All day he lagged. On the second day Tursiops suddenly swerved off with the v;hole school l>ehind him, with intentions of leaving the sick cowfish' alone. But he followed, his shattered fm nuiverin<: in the drive of the water. There Tursiops charged at him openmouthed. Thif old cowjjsh swerved, <ac-e-opijtho verdict of the pack. wh?ch is banishment to the sick or maimed, and the old bull had become veak through some disease, perhaps sr/me -.-ten-growth, and there must be nothing'flint, is not clean and stmne rnid swift in the ranks of the cowfish. Pnee<l, speed—speed is the very life of the herd; tho.v cannot wait for the they cannot fiqbt for th* weak. Every one for himself, and all keen tr-rpHier. thai ij the motto of Tursions and "his kind. The old bull wont his lonely way. an outcast in the c f-as. nerhans to wander fw years till «:ekness killed him, perhans to me*t his fate in an encounter with On\a the fierce Killer. .And the swift, the slrourr, th? agile took bus plnca in the van and made the pace for the hunting bulls.