NORTHERN SPECIES OF ORCA. 157 



I shall now return to the exatnination of the external appearance of the killer before us. As 

 already stated, not only the back fin, but all the fins, generally speaking, proved to be very large 

 and powerful. All three female killers known to me through drawings have comparatively small 

 caudal fins ; in Schlegel's specimen its breadth is l^ths of the total length of the body ::= 0-282 ; 

 in Tliomsen's, 3J: 13 = 0-27; and still smaller in Bloch's; in our specimen, on the contrary, 

 6i : 21i = 0-31 ; and, according to Thomas Bell, its breadth may even be upwards of ^rd, or 0'383 

 of the length of the body. 



The pectoral fins are very large in all killers, and especially very broad and ovate; in 

 Dr. Schlegel's specimen, however, their length was only 0-123 of the length of the animal, their 

 breadth 0087 ; in our specimen, on the other hand, the length was 0-183, the breadth 0-15 ; accord- 

 ingly, when compared with those of the former specimen, its length was almost as 3 to 2, its breadth 

 nearly double; the circmnference, therefore, almost three times as large. In the specimen 

 described by Bell they were comparatively smaller, namely, their length 0-149, their breadth 

 0'125 of the total length of the animal. 



Generally speaking these facts seem, no doubt, to speak in favour of Nilsson's supposition, 

 as if the superior power and strength always prevalent in the males of all species of fierce beasts 

 of prey, when compared with the females, were also here showing itself, and more especially so in 

 the fins in general, and the back fin in particular; and that the killers are, indeed, most 

 carnivorous animals will be evident from the following statements. 



I had been told that the Cetacean I was going to see had most probably been choked by 

 trying to swallow a seal, half of which was still fixed in its mouth ; and, sure enough, a pair of 

 swimming-paws of a seal were seen hanging out. It proved, however, when examined more 

 attentively, to be a torn and dried seal-skin, the greater part of which was sticking fast 

 within its jaws. Prom the portion hanging out it could be ascertained that it had been 

 turned inside out, the paws, however, excepted, which, accordingly, were still placed on the hairy 

 surface of the skin now turned inwards, but hanging out thence through a great rent. At length, 

 the whole piece coming out, it appeared that the crushed head, too, had been excepted from the 

 turning inside out, being placed, therefore, within the flayed skin. 



While we were thus examining the external appearance of the anunal, the measurement had 

 also been commenced, which gave the following results : 



Herudi fjoren ved voer Fergested : Hvor den blef Shut af Velbiirdig Christen Seefeldt til Steenalt 

 forst med ea Musquette Kuule Gjennem Hovedet oc dereffter med 9 store, rende Kuuler udi Livet ved 

 nagelen^ inden Den kunde, doe oc, Bergis — Dens Lengde Vaar 9^ Sellandtz alne — oc dens brede um 

 Krring, 6i Sellandtz alne." (In the year 1679, December 27th, this fish came into the firth near our 

 ferry-place, where it was shot by the Honourable Christen Seefeldt, of Steenalt, first by a musket- 

 bullet through the head, and afterwards with nine large slugs into the body, at the navel, before it 

 could die and be secured ; its length was nine and a half Sealandish ells, and its breadth around the 

 body six and a half Sealandish ells.) 



The drawing contains, as might be expected, several palpable errors from a zoological point of view ; 

 the posture of the animal is quite distorted, but fortunately so that both the female genitals and the 

 low back-fin are visible; and, at the same time, its colouring shows distinctly enough that it is a 

 killer ; the peculiar distriljution of the black and the white colour on the sides of the body and the 

 large white spot behind the eye, which characterize these large dolphins, being represented. 



1 L. c, p. 481. 



