56 THE BRITISH MAMMALS I THEIR GENERA AND SPECIES. 



becoming rarer. He ranges into Northern Asia, where he is replaced 

 by his next-of-kin, the sable. 



Orca. Plate xxv. GET ACE A. 



66. gladiator, KILLER. Black above, with a white patch over the 

 eye ; lower jaw white ; back fin large and powerful. 



The Killer, recognisable from afar by its tall back-fin and close 

 at hand by its white eye-patch, feeds mainly on other dolphins, 

 whales, and seals, and appears wherever they are, and sometimes 

 where they are not, as, for instance, in the Thames off Battersea 

 Park. The head is depressed, the snout rounded, the body stout, 

 the flippers large, ovate, and nearly as broad as long. The dorsal 

 rises in the middle of the back, and sometimes there is a white patch 

 behind it in addition to that above the eye. The white from below 



KILLER. 

 (Orca gladiator.) 



extends up the side behind the dorsal, to form a promontory point- 

 ing backwards. The teeth are large, with conical crowns, and 

 number from ten to thirteen pairs, placed all along each jaw. There 

 are fifty-two vertebrae and twelve ribs, seven of which are double- 

 headed. The Killer is twenty feet or more in length, and is 

 excelled in voracity by nothing alive. 



Phoca. Plate viii. CARNIVORA. 



30. vitulina, COMMON SEAL. Teeth contiguous and set obliquely ) 



colour yellowish grey with dark spots. 



31. hispida, RINGED SEAL. Teeth separate and set straight ; 



colour blackish grey with oval rings. 



32. grasnlandica, HARP SEAL. Teeth separate and set straight ; colour 



grey with curved black bars. 



These seals have no ears, and the coat is hairy, with no woolly 

 under-fur. The head is round and short, and the fore feet are short, 

 with strong claws. There are three incisors, a canine, four premolars, 

 and a molar in the upper jaw, and an incisor less in the lower jaw ; the 



