KILLER, OR GRAMPUS. 447 



coast of Essex, and a skeleton from Weymouth. In 

 November, I80O, a male of twenty-one feet in length was 

 stranded in Lyini Harbour, and was tardily despatched 

 with knives and sharpened oars. The groans of this 

 poor animal are described as having been most horrible ; 

 its skull was procured for us by our friend Dr. Laird, 

 and is now in the Museum of the University of Cam- 

 bridge. In March, 18G4, a " school " of ten came up 

 the River Parret, in Somersetshire, and were all secured 

 within five miles of Bridgewater ; they were examined 

 by Mr. T. Clark, who recorded the fact in the " Zoolo- 

 gist " for the same year. One was taken at Weston- 

 super-Mare in 1871 ; its skeleton is now in the Oxford 

 Museum. 



The fierceness and voracity of the Killer, in wliich 

 it surpasses all other known Cetaceans, was naturally 

 enough exaggerated by the sailors and fishermen of the 

 north. According to them they attacked the Right 

 Whale in troops, some of the herd hanging on to the 

 colossal victim's tail and biting it till it roared with pain, 

 when one of them would dart into its huge mouth and 

 tear out the tongue. At other times, according to 

 Crantz, a Killer might be seen bearing off a Seal in its 

 jaws, another beneath each flipper, and a fourth under 

 its dorsal fin ! Such talcs are sufficiently absurd, but 

 the well-authenticated proofs of this creature's savage 

 rapacity almost stagger belief. John Hunter found the 

 tail of a Porpoise in the stomach of a Grampus, and one 

 examined by Prof. Nilsson contained fragments of four 

 Seals. Prof. Eschricht dissected a specimen of twenty-one 

 feet in length, taken on the coast of Denmark in 1861, 

 and found in its stomach tiie remains of no less than 

 thirteen Porpoises and fourteen Seals, more or less 

 digested, while the voracious brute seemed to have 



