286 A BOOK OR WHALES 







irregular light streaks and spots suggestive of 

 scrapings upon wet paint. In a younger individual 

 the sides were marked with six regular transverse 



O 



stripes. This animal (only six feet in length) had 

 eight whitish bristles on each side of the upper lip. 



This is not by any means a common Cetacean. 

 Only a dozen records of its capture upon the English 

 and French coasts are extant. It feeds upon cuttle- 

 fish and is gregarious. 



The genus ORCA* (Plate XXI.) has 10-13 teeth, 

 large, with recurved crowns. Pterygoids not quite 

 meeting. Vertebrae: C. 7; D. 11-12; L. 10 ; Ca. 

 23 = 51 or 52. First two or three cervicals fused. 

 The first seven ribs are two-headed ; five reach the 

 sternum. Dorsal fin large and pointed. 



The Killer whales (" Tyrannus balaenarum," " For- 

 midabilis balsenarum hostis "), sometimes called 

 "Grampus,"t are the largest among the Delphinidae, 

 reaching a length of 20-30 feet. They are power- 

 ful, rapacious animals, and are the only whales that 

 feed upon their own kind and upon large prey. It 

 is perhaps not necessary to believe with an old writer 

 that a Killer has been seen with a seal under each 

 flipper, a third tucked away under the dorsal fin, and 

 a fourth in the mouth ; but it is stated by Eschricht 

 that from the stomach of one of these fierce whales 



* See especially VAN BENEDEN, in Mem. Acad. Belg., 1882. 

 t A French word for this whale, used by Rondeletius, is Epaulard ; 

 i.e., peisaulard. 



