1872.] MR. E. W. H. HOLDSWORTH ON A NEW CETACEAN. 585 



the shape of the dorsal fin, the manner in which it was set on the 

 back, the form of the top of the head, and the approximate position 

 of the blow-hole are characters of which I can speak with confidence, 

 and which I believe are represented with a close approach to accuracy 

 in the accompanying outlines, reduced from the sketches I made from 

 the animal itself. The place where I fell in with this Whale was 

 about seven miles from the land, in the deep water of the Gulf of 

 Mannar, just beyond the bank of soundings which runs along the 

 coast of Ceylon ; and although I spent many weeks every year in 

 cruising on that coast whilst engaged in pearl-fishery work, and saw 

 numbers of the smaller Cetaceans, I never met with an animal of this 

 description except on the occasion I have mentioned. 



This Cetacean was more or less visible for quite four minutes (three 

 minutes and a half from the time of its partial submersion after its 

 first breathing), and under favourable circumstances for observations ; 

 but the particulars I have been able to give are of course insufficient 

 to enable me to say to what special group of Whales this one may 

 belong. It would be easier to point out, if necessary, those from 

 which its observed characters and manners would seem to exclude it ; 

 but there would still remain so many groups in which our ignorance 

 of external characters might permit it to be included that no definite 

 conclusion could be arrived at from a consideration of its possible 

 affinities. The only recognized Cetaceans having a dorsal fin at all 

 resembling in size and form that I have described are : — (1) The one 

 to which Steenstrup has given the name Orca eschrichtii, from the 

 Faroe Islands ; of this the copy of a rough sketch is given by 

 Eschricht in his paper " On the Northern Species of Orca," which 

 forms part of the ' Recent Memoirs on the Cetacea' published by the 

 Ray Society, 1866, p. 187, and edited by Professor Flower. In this 

 case, however, the dorsal fin, although fully five feet high in an 

 animal apparently about twenty- two feet long, is rather different in 

 form from the one I have been speaking of; it tapers from the base 

 upwards, and is directed somewhat backwards instead of being verti- 

 cal. (2) Orca rectipinna, Cope*, ranging "from California south- 

 wards." The fin in this species stands quite erect, and is six feet 

 high in an animal twenty-five feet long, bnt tapers regularly from a 

 breadth of about eighteen inches at the base to its pointed apex, 

 in this respect differing materially from the narrow sword-like form 

 of the one under notice. The species of Orca and of the allied genus 

 Grampus are very predaceous animals ; they are active and dashing 

 in their movements, as I have had many opportunities of observing 

 in the case of the Grampus on the English coast ; in this habit they 

 resemble the Dolphins, as well as in not stopping when they come to 

 the surface to breathe. This is entirely different from the generally 

 sluggish and true whale-like manners of the animal I observed in 

 the Gulf of Mannar. Professor Owen has within the last few years 

 described in our 'Transactions' (vol. vi. pt. 1, 1866) no less than 



* "On the Cetaceans of the Western Coast of North America," by C. M. 

 Scammon, edited by E. D. Cope, I'roc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil. vol. xsi. p. 22 

 (1869). * 



