12 APRIL 1913, Page 17

THE WHALE'S BELLOW.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Your correspondent's courteous letter compels roe to reply to his two points. First : that the sound he and others heard could only have been caused by some obstruction in the air tube of the animal, for no whale has vocal organs. Second : I have seen several cow whales (Megaptera) killed while they had calves by their sides, and have often seen sperm whale cows and calves in great terror from attack by whale-boats, but such cows never emitted a sound except when spouting blood. And then, as I have before stated, that sound had nothing vocal in it, but was purely the result of the breath trying to escape through a tube partially choked with clotted