28cS A BOOK OF WHALES 



long and pointed dorsal fin is used for aggressive 

 purposes, to rip up the belly of a whale ! 



The Hon. Paul Dudley* thus describes the attacks 

 of the Killers upon whalebone whales : " They go 

 in company by dozens and set upon a young whale, 

 and will bait him like so many bulldogs. Some will 

 lay hold of his tail to keep him from threshing, while 

 others lay hold of his head and bite and thresh him, 

 till the poor creature, being thus heated, lolls out his 

 tongue, and then some of the Killers catch hold of 

 his lips, and, if possible, of his tongue ; and after they 

 have killed him they chiefly feed upon the tongue 

 and head, but when he begins to putrefy they leave 

 him. This Killer is doubtless the Orca that Dr. 

 Frangius describes in his Treatise of Animals. His 

 words are these: "When an Orca pursues a whale 

 the latter makes a terrible bellowing, like a bull when 

 bitten by a dog." These Killers are of such strength 

 that when several boats together have been towing 



o o 



a dead whale, one of them has come and fastened 

 his teeth in her and carried her away down to the 

 bottom in an instant." 



In more northern regions the Orca pursues the 

 White whale and the walrus. Not indeed the adult 

 walrus, whose strong tusks may be supposed to be 

 a sufficient protection. It is the young that the 

 Killer hunts. "The cub will mount upon its mother's 

 back for refuge, clinging to it with instinctive solici- 

 tude. When in this apparently safe position the 



* Phil. Trans., xxxiii., 1725, p. 82 (abridged edition). 



