Are these cetacea peculiar to the great rivers of South America, like the manatee, which, according to Cuvier, is also a fresh water cetaceous animal?
This herbivorous animal of the cetaceous family, is called by the Indians apcia and avia,* and it attains here generally ten or twelve feet in length.
It has not the fetid smell of whale-oil, or that of the other cetaceous animals which spout water.
Therefore this animal partakes of the cetaceous nature in the hinder parts of its body, and of a quadruped by the two fore-feet, or hands, on each side of the breast.
This plan he found to proceed uniformly from mankind to the monkey, from the monkey to quadrupeds, from quadrupeds to the cetaceous animals, and so on to birds, fish, and reptiles.
The seal and the walrus approach nearer to quadrupeds than to cetaceous animals, because they have a kind of feet.
But the manatis, which have only two before, are more of the cetaceous tribes than the quadrupeds.
The Americans fill them with air, and make a kind of raft, or small boats of them: their fat yields a clear and much sweeter oil than that drawn from the porpoise, or other cetaceous animals.
The two handed are in the distance between man and the cetaceous tribes.
I have received divers Kinds of Teeth, and Bones of Cetaceous Fishes, unto which they could assign no Name.
This singular semi-cetaceous creature is almost too well-known to require description.
The body is that of a seal; but instead of being covered with hair, as the cetaceous animal, the manati has a smooth skin that resembles india-rubber more than anything else.
Besides, the sloth and armadillo are the only quadrupeds, which have neither incisive nor canine teeth, but whose grinders are cylindrical, and round at the extremities, nearly like those of some cetaceous animals.
The second general property, to produce young alive, is not peculiar to quadrupeds, since it is also common with cetaceous animals.
Near the top of the head are two small holes, through which it is possible the Sturgeon may discharge water in the manner practised by cetaceous animals.
Suppose it to be of the cetaceous class, it could only remain under the water two or three minutes together without rising to the surface to take breath; and if this were the case with the Mermaid, would it not be oftener seen?
Aristotle, in his "History of Animals," makes some extremely curious observations on Fish and Cetaceous Animals, as might be expected from the variety of these animals in the Grecian seas.
The bird is carnivorous, and feeds on the blubber of cetaceous fish, and on other dead carcasses floating in the sea.
The oil produced by the Monodon monoceros, though scanty, is, in point of quality, superior to any other cetaceous oil.
This peculiarity also attends the whale, and other cetaceous animals.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "cetaceous" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
