52 CETACEAXS. 



long-finned males and the shorter-finned females may be found in the same school, 

 while at other times the two sexes keep apart. The swiftness of the killer is very- 

 great, as it is able to overtake the smaller dolphins, which it swallows alive. Its 

 voracity is apparently insatiable : Eschricht stating that one of these animals was 

 known to swallow four porpoises in succession, while from the stomach of another 

 individual, whose length did not exceed 16 feet, were taken fourteen seals. 

 whales attacked Like the other larger members of the order, the Greenland whale 



by Killers. j s sometimes attacked by a party of killers. Writing on the subject 

 of these attacks Captain Scammon says that " three or four of these voracious 

 animals do not hesitate to grapple with the largest baleen-whale ; and it is surprising 

 to see those leviathans of the deep so completely paral\-sed by the presence of 

 their natural, although diminutive enemies. Frequently the terrified animal — 

 comparatively of enormous size and superior strength — evinces no effort to escape, 

 but lies in a helpless condition, or makes but little resistance to the assaults of 

 its merciless destroyers. The attack of these wolves of the ocean upon their 



THE KILLER. 



Prom True, Bulletin of the V.S. /rational Museum, 1889.) 



gigantic prey may be likened in some respects to a pack of hounds holding a 

 stricken deer at bay. They cluster about the animal's head, some of their 

 number breaching over it, while others seize it by the lips and draw the bleeding 

 monster under water: and when captured, should the mouth be open, they eat out 

 its tongue. We once saw an attack made by three killers upon a cow whale and 

 her calf, in a lagoon on the coast of California in the spring of 1858. The whale 

 was of the California grey species, and her young was grown to three times the 

 bulk of the largest killers engaged in the contest, which lasted for an hour or 

 more. They made alternate assaults upon the old whale and her offspring, finally 

 killing the latter, which sank to the bottom, when' the water w;is five fathoms 

 deep. During the struggle the mother became nearly exhausted, having received 

 several deep wounds about the mouth and lips. As soon as their prize had settled 

 to the bottom, the three killers descended, bringing up large pieces of flesh in their 

 mouths, which they devoured after coming to the surface. While gorging themselves 

 in this wise, the old whale made her escape, leaving a track of gory water behind." 

 On the 9th of September 180:1 when off the coast of Minas Geraes, Brazil, at 

 no great distance from the islands of Los Abrolhos. in long. 39° W., lat. 18° S., the 

 attention of the present writer was attracted by the appearance of a whale and 

 some other creatures at a distance of apparently something less than a quarter of 



