4 i8 WHALES AND DOLPHINS 



KILLER WHALE (Orca gladiator). 

 Coloured Plate XXX. Fig. 4. 



Of all the Dolphin family, the Killer or Grampus is one of 

 the largest, and at the same time easily the most ferocious. 

 Though it seldom exceeds twenty feet in length, the Orca 

 makes relentless war upon its relations, being the only 

 member of the Whale family that habitually feeds upon 

 marine mammals. That the Beluga should fall a prey to it 

 may not be a matter for surprise, but a party of half a dozen 

 killers will attack a Greenland Whale, whose bulk may be 

 a hundred times that of any one of these wolves of the 

 ocean. In the course of but a few minutes the leviathan 

 will be reduced to a broken, palpitating island of helpless 

 flesh. Having disabled their gigantic prey the ferocious 

 miniature Whales enter the mouth of the giant to make 

 feast upon its soft, succulent tongue. In an incredibly 

 short time hosts of sea-birds above, and myriads of fishes 

 below, in their office of ocean scavengers, set about the task 

 of disintegrating ^ the mighty mass that was so recently 

 instinct with life.* 



