NORTHERN SPECIES OF ORCA. 



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their outer margin, and, finally, they were dilated at their anterior extremities, forming a knob 

 [capituluni), which, however, was still only cartilaginous, and about the form of which nothing 

 certain can be stated, on account of their altered state at the time of 

 the examination. It is, however, certain, that this pair of pelvic bones 

 was almost perfectly symmetrical. 



But such was not the case with the pair of pelvic bones belonging — , 



to the skeleton of Mr. Bloch's old female specimen. These two bones are of the same length, 

 namely, 8", and the same breadth, namely 8'" behind, and 2^'" in front close to the knob. Their 

 posterior and broader two thirds being only very slightly 

 curved, might, perhaps, be also called symmetrical, but 

 their anterior third is so difierently formed, and twisted 

 in opposite directions, that it will be found impossible 

 to place the tv?o bones so that they seem symmetrical 

 in their whole length. 



Nevertheless, these two pelvic bones of the full-grovrn female Orca, have in themselves an 

 indisputable resemblance to those of the young female just mentioned, especially in their 

 slenderness and scarcely perceptible curve of their broader extremities ; whereas they are exceed- 

 ingly different from the massive pelvic bones of the males, with their strong incurvation behind, 

 and their perfectly simple form in front, and we can hardly help considering the difference to be 

 a character of sex. 



No pelvic bones were found attached to the little Paroe skeleton of the museum when it 

 was unpacked, but among the many loose bones which, as we have already stated, besides three 

 crania, accompanied the whole lot sent from the same locality, we found four pairs of pelvic 

 bones, each carefully tied together, and it can hardly be doubted but that they all belonged to 

 individuals of the shoal stranded there. 



Among these pelvic bones, one pair is perfectly different from all the others, especially 

 by its considerable thickness, and resembles those of Benzon's and Nilsson's specimens in an 

 extraordinary degree. It belongs, therefore, without doubt, to a large male. The length of 

 the bones is 10^", that is, as in Nilsson's specimen, 1" shorter than the pelvic bones of Benzon's 

 specimen. 



The three remaining pairs belonging to this lot are comparatively slender, and may, we 

 should say, on this account alone be supposed to have belonged to females. The smallest 

 among them is only 6" long, and it is extremely probable that it belongs to the small 11' 9" 

 long skeleton, as all the other loose bones are those of larger individuals. 



Since the recent progress of Cetology it cannot be doubted but that the genus Orca, inhabiting 

 all the large seas of the globe, must contain more than one species, and we have certainly every 

 reason to refer to it every Cetacean known to subsist on warm-blooded animals as well as on fishes. 



That more especially the killers or, as they have sometimes been called, thrashers 

 beyond the equator must be specifically distinct from the northern ones might, perhaps, in 

 itself be considered as a matter of course, even if J. E. Gray had not given us the different 



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