182 ESCHRICHT ON THE 



To begin with the specimen, with the description of whose natural appearance we have 

 commenced our present account, we mean Mr. Benzon's, it can hardly be doubted but 

 that it belongs to the same species as that of Professor Nilsson. Though not only a full- 

 grown male, like the latter specimen, but even a very old individual with its teeth worn down to the 

 very gums, and with the roots of the teeth perfectly closed, and besides, covered with a very thick 

 layer of cement, and though provided with an equally high dorsal fin (four feet), and still broader 

 pectoral fins, yet it was one foot shorter, and wanted the white spot on the back of the head ; but 

 these differences may, we suppose, be considered to be individual, as the Avhole osteology of the 

 two specimens presents almost exactly the same character,^ having both twelve pairs of ribs ; 

 and, as ought to be particulariy noticed, fifty-four vertebræ, whereas both the types of the 

 smaller species have only fifty-two vertebræ. As to the number of the phalanges, the left pec- 

 toral fin of my specimen agrees even better with those of Professor Nilsson's specimen, than 

 with the right pectoral fin of the same individual ; the fourth and fifth fingers of the latter having 

 each one phalanx less than the former, for the fourth has only two phalanges and the fifth only 

 one. 



Of a few unessential difi"erences, I need only mention here that the first part of the 

 sternum (the manubrium), contrary to what is the case in the specimen of Professor Nilsson, 

 is completely ankylosed with the second, and has not any hole in the middle. 



It may, perhaps, be more difficult to point out the females belonging to either of these 

 species. This part of the task has only been very slightly treated of by Professor Lilljeborg, 

 because while he was staying at Copenhagen, where three skeletons of females were before him, 

 namely, the 16' 4" long one from Greenland (Mr. Bloch's specimen), the 11' 11" long one from 

 the eastern coast of Jutland (Mr. Thoms en's specimen), and the 11' 9" long one from the 

 Paroe Islands, he had not yet thought of treating the matter so accurately as he afterwards 

 determined to do during his ensuing visit to Bergen. It is in this part of the task that I espe- 

 cially believe myself able to assist my respected friend, having, of course, on account of my 

 position, had a much better opportunity of examining these objects belonging to the museum. 



The Orca skeleton longest in my possession is that of an Ardluk from Greenland caught in 1844, 

 in the neighbourhood of Godthaab, which Professor Nilsson in his "Scandinavian Fauna" has men- 

 tioned as the Bloch specimen, because he was acquainted with it from a drawing executed by Mr. 

 Bloch, then the physician of the settlement, and sent home the very same year, while the skeleton 

 itself was sent to me the following year by Captain HolboU, together with paper patterns of its 

 dorsal, caudal, and pectoral fins. The dried skeleton is 16' 4", in its fresh state the animal must, 

 therefore, be supposed to have been about seventeen and a half feet long. It was a female, its 

 pelvic bones are described and represented above. The osteology, on the whole, corre- 

 sponds to that of the Bergen specimens, as described by Professor Lilljeborg. It has 

 fifty-two vertebræ, eleven pair of ribs, and the foremost hæmapophysis is placed between the 

 thirty-first and thirty-second vertebræ. The three foremost cervical vertebræ are ankylosed by 

 the bodies, the four foremost by the spinous processes ; the digits of the left pectoral fin have one, 

 six, three, two, one phalanges respectively ; in the right, there are two phalanges less in the longest 

 finger. We must therefore with Professor Lilljeborg refer it to the smaller species. But it was besides 



^ In order to ascertain this point I made a journey to Lund, where I met with the greatest 

 possible kindness at the hands of Professor Naumann and Professor Wahlgren. 



