348 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No, 55 



lions and walruses, it also includes the smaller dolphins and por- 

 poises, usually swallowed whole, often several at a meal. The killers 

 attack and kill and devour not only the white whale and smaller 

 whales and the young of the great whales but also the largest whales 

 of all, biting and tearing their jaws, striking them from above and 

 below, and tearing out pieces of flesh until their helpless victims 

 become paralyzed with fear and pain and yield without resistance 

 to their bloodthirsty attacks. Fortunately they are not so numerous, 

 nor do they go in such large schools as the porpoise and blackfish. 

 They are rarely taken by the whalers as they yield comparatively 

 little oil, but Scammon says the Makah Indians pursue and take 

 them about Cape Flattery as they consider their flesh and fat more 

 luxurious food than that of the larger balaenas and rorquals. 



ORCINUS ATER (COPE) 

 BLACK KILLER; ORCA 



Oroa ater Cope, Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. Proc., p. 22, 1869. 



Orcinus orca (Linnaeus) of Miller, from European Seas. U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 



128, p. 511, 1924. 

 [Delphinus] orca Linnaeus, Syst Nat, ed. 10, v. 1, p. 77, 1758. 



Type locality. Northwest coast. 



General characters. Size smaller than in rectipinna with lower, more 

 falcate dorsal fin, less white on lower parts, and with white spot or stripe 

 back of eye and brown crescent back of dorsal fin (pi. 50, B). 



Range. Given by Cope as Oregon to the Aleutian Islands. 



GRAMPUS GRISEUS (CuviEK) 

 COMMON GRAMPUS 



Delphinus ffriseus Cuvier, Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat., Paris 19: 14, 1812. 

 Grampus stearnsii Ball, 1873, from Monterey Bay, Calif. 



Type locality. Brest, coast of France. 



General characters. Scammon says the average length of the grampus may 

 be 10 feet and that it has a rounded muzzle like that of the harbor porpoise. 

 In the high and narrow dorsal fin it resembles the black killer, Orcinus ater, 

 and in its movements in the water it also resembles that species. It has a 

 small number of teeth, 4 to 6 in each jaw, and varies greatly in color am 

 markings, some being almost black all over and others with white head am 

 anterior part of body, and others more or less mottled with white and grs 

 (pi. 50, 0). 



Measurements. One adult female from the Atlantic coast: Total lengt 

 given as about 12 feet (True, 1889, p. 126) ; length of pectoral fin, 21 inches; 

 height of dorsal fin, 13 inches. 



Distribution. A species or group of species so little known thi 

 the application of names is doubtful, as the general characters ai 

 largely drawn from observation of the animals at sea. Whether one 

 species ranges along the coasts of several oceans or whether two 01 

 more forms occupy the western coast of North America is not entireb 

 settled. Apparently in one form or another they occupy the whol* 

 western coast of the United States, wandering along the coasts 01 

 in the bays in large schools or occasionally 2 or 3 together, or more 

 rarely singly. 



Their food is said to consist of fish and several varieties of crusta- 

 ceans. They are extremely wild and shy and rarely taken. 



