448 DELPHINIDiE. 



choked on the skin of another Seal which was found 

 entangled in its teeth ! Holboll was an eye-witness of 

 a herd of White Whales being driven by Killers into 

 a bay near Godhaven and literally torn to pieces, and 

 mentions a case in which a large '' Keporkak " {Megap- 

 tera longimana) was destroyed by these savage animals. 



The name " Killer " or " Whale-Killer " is commonly 

 applied to this large species by sailors, and seems pre- 

 ferable to that of " Grampus," which has been given 

 to several very distinct species, and has latterly been 

 used as the systematic name of a different genus. 

 " Killer " evidently alludes to the carnivorous habits of 

 the animal ; " Gi*ampus " is derived through the Norman 

 Grapois, from the French Grand-poisson, just as Porpoise 

 is from Porc-poisson. 



The head is obtusely and evenly rounded, passing 

 gradually into the snout, which is not truncated as in 

 some species, although more blunt than in the Porpoise. 

 The upper jaw is slightly the longest ; the eye is small, 

 and is placed at a distance of about five inches above 

 and behind the angle of tlie gape. The external open- 

 ing of the ear is about as large as a pea ; the blow-hole 

 lunate, concave in front. The dorsal fin is very high, 

 especially in the male, being sometimes more than one- 

 fifth of the whole length of the animal. The flippers 

 are broad and oval, and the tail extremely broad and 

 powerful. 



The colour is somewhat variable. The upper parts 

 are of a fine glossy black and the lower of a pure white, 

 the meeting of these lines being sharply defined. Above 

 each eye is a white spot, and in some individuals there 

 is a large pale mark on the side, which in others is 

 joined to the white of the belly. Sometimes there is 

 a '' saddle-mark " of a grey colour, and in others a 



