■"^-J^ THE " HORRIBLE SEA-SATYRE" chap. 



Grey Whale. " Belua truculenta dentibus," observed Olaus Magnus 

 of this Cetacean. The high dorsal lin has been much exaggerated 

 in old drawings ; it has been even represented as strong and 

 sharpened at the end, so as to be capable of ripping open the 

 belly of a Whale. The fact that it sometimes lies over a little 

 to one side is responsible for another anecdote : that an example 

 of this Whale was seen to retire with a couple of Seals tucked 

 away under the flippers, another grasped by the dorsal fln, and a 

 fourth in the mouth ! " When an Orca pursues a whale," wrote 

 Dr. Frangius, " the latter makes a terrible bellowing like a bull 

 when bitten by a dog." It is probable, according to F. Cuvier, 

 tluit tliis Whale is the " Aries marinus " of the ancients, certain 

 bands of white upon the head giving an impression of curved 

 horns. It may also be the " horrible Sea-satyre " of Edmund 

 Spencer. 



Allied to Orca, but distinguishable from it by some rather 

 minute peculiarities, is Pse/adorca. It may be thus defined : — 

 Teeth eight to ten, much like those of Orca. Dorsal fin 

 rather small, falcate. Vertebral formula C 7, D 10, L 9, Ca 24. 

 Six or all the cervicals united. The curious fact about this 

 Whale, which embraces only a single species, P. crassidcns, is that 

 it was first known in the fossil condition from remains discovered 

 in the fens of Lincolnshire. An important day for cetologists 

 was that on which a whole herd entered the Baltic and furnished 

 material for a better study of this Whale. It is not, any more 

 than its near ally Orca, confined to northern seas ; for several 

 examples, at first relegated to a distinct species (P. m-eridionalis), 

 have been obtained from the seas round Tasmania. 



Orcella (which has been written Orcaclla) has fourteen to 

 nineteen small sharp teeth in each half of each jaw. The 

 pterygoids are widely separate. The dorsal fin is small and 

 falcate. The vertebral formula is C 7, D 14, L 14, Ca 26. 

 Seven ribs are two-headed, and five of them reach tlie sternum. 



This genus contains but a single species, 0. hrevirostris, which 

 is both marine and fresh-water in habit ; it occurs in the Indian 

 seas, and in the Irrawaddy even as far up as 900 miles from the 

 sea. Some regard tlie fresh-water individuals as a distinct form, 

 0. Jiuriiiyudis. 



Sagmatins is a genus known only from a skull, which is 

 remarkable for the elevation of the premaxillae into a crest ; the 



