380 THE whale's enemy. 



several casts in 1113^ Museum of Economical Fish 

 Culture. 



I am still of opinion that the fox-shark was not the 

 animal that attacked this whale. The drawing gives 

 me sufficient evidence of this, as the tail, &c., is not that 

 of the thresher. 



What animal, therefore, could it have been that we 

 see depicted in the sketch attacking the whale ? I think 

 I have discovered it. It was the gladiator dolphin, or 

 sword grampus {Delphinus r/ladiator). 



This grampus has very strong and sharp-pointed teeth, 

 and is an animal of great boldness and strength. 



These beasts are really great enemies of the whale, 

 and they often hunt the whale in couples. They prin- 

 cipally attack the young whales, but they are not above 

 making an onslaught on an adult animal. There is, 

 moreover, an excellent reason why the "sword grampus" 

 attacks a whale. He is a very carnivorous fellow, and 

 there is plenty of testimony extant that, having killed 

 the whale, he and his friends will eat him. These 

 grampuses are so carnivorous that they will also hunt 

 seals, and catching them when they are swimming 

 about the ice-floes, or else (as my friend Captain David 

 Gray, of the Eclijjse, Peterhead, whaler, told me) thrust- 

 ing themselves up on to the edges of the ice, they will 

 seize the seals off it, kill, and devour them. Nay more, 

 when specimens of this whale killer have been cut open, 

 the contents of the stomach, viz., portions of whales, 

 porpoises, or of seal's flesh, show that he is accustomed 

 to devour his fellow cetacea. 



Thus, then, I beg to offer a further sohation of the 

 fight that Lord A. Campbell observed, and that many 

 others also have recorded. 



