The Fin-Back is not gregarious. He seems a whale-hater, as some men are man-haters.

Claude Villette, who wrote in a still earlier time, speaks of grey or ash-coloured, violet, yellow, and dove-coloured (colombin) as secondary colours to the four chief colours in use in the Gallacan Church.

Newly hatched young are naked and pink, but within a few days a short white down known as the neoptile unfolds from the skin (Kniprath & Stier 2008).

Davis is out to remove the slur of moral uptightness and narrow virtue from Malamuds reputation.