6 EDWARD A. WILSON. 



whole, to be a fairly abundant species in the summer months, frequenting the edges of 

 the ice as it breaks back to its farthest point. 



During our voyage out we were accompanied on November 5th (S. lat. 48 and 

 E. long. 100) by a solitary male of this species, which was of the dull yellow colour 

 that characterises the animal in old age. It measured about 20 feet in length, and 

 was covered with the white hieroglyphic markings which are said to be produced by 

 the arms and suckers of the cephalopods upon which this animal feeds. In this case, 

 as the whale remained with us for upwards of half an hour, and almost rubbed its sides 

 against the ship, we had ample opportunity for observing it closely and satisfying our- 

 selves as to its identification. 



It is, however, known mainly as a Northern species which lives, not in the ice, but 

 on its outskirts, and in this, the whales which we identified as Hyperoodon agreed, 

 except that they were in the south and not the north. But if the whale is known to exist 

 so far south as S. lat. 48, there is every reason that it should follow the same instincts 

 in the Southern Hemisphere that it follows in the Northern. It would then go south 

 during the summer, keeping just at the margin of the ice, as we observed it to do in 

 McMurdo Sound, and these facts, taken in conjunction with its occurrence in S. lat. 48, 

 makes me more certain that this is a species common to both Northern and Southern seas. 



It will be seen that the outline given (fig. 3) of the southern form is almost 

 identical, except for a slight difference in the dorsal fin, with that of Hyperoodon rostratus 

 as figured in Flower and Lydekker's " Mammals " ; but it will also be seen to agree 

 even more precisely with the outline given by Sir James Hector of Berardius Arnuxii, 

 see pi. xvi, in a paper delivered to the Wellington Philosophical Society, Jan. 12th, 1878. 



Whatever, therefore, may be the true identity of this whale, and without a capture 

 it is impossible to say, I give the facts for what they are worth. It is, at any rate, of 

 interest to know that such a whale is to be found in the southernmost waters of the 

 Antarctic ; and we may hope that before long some expedition may interest itself in 

 the capture of these doubtful species. 



OECA GLADIATOR. 

 The Killer. 



Delphiaus orca, Linn., Syst. Nat. (1766), p. 108. 



Orca gladiator, Gray, Zool. Ereb. and Terr. (1846), p. 33 ; Flower, op. cit., p. 18 ; Huttou & Drummond, 

 Animals of New Zealand (1904), p. 53. 



Turning now to the Dolphins, the largest of all, the Orca, or Killer, is very 

 abundant, probably the most abundant, of all the Cetacea in the Southern seas. In 

 Ross Sea, and particularly in McMurdo Sound, it was always to be seen the first to 

 arrive as the ice broke up hunting along the cracks between the floes, and dowu 

 the edges of the fast ice, for seals and penguins. 



Moving rapidly in large herds, sometimes amounting to a hundred, they were con- 

 stantly rising to blow in the leads of open water (figs. 4 and 5). In length they were 

 apparently from 15 to 20 feet ; in colour, a dirty grey above with a broad yellow-ochre- 



