NORTHERN SPECIES OF ORG A. 187 



which in January, 1858, in a manner hitherto unknown, and for some unknown reason, ran 

 on the shore and perished in the Kollefjord in Strotno Island, and that on the same day another 

 shoal consisting of nineteen killers was in the same way stranded in Qualvig in the same 

 island. — J. Steenstrup. 



ADDITIONAL NOTE. 



[Sysselmand H. C. Miiller, who sent from the Faroes the skeletons and crania on which 

 Eschricht has founded this third northern species of Orca, informs us, that these remains 

 were taken from a small flock of nine killers, which ran aground in an uncommon manner, and 

 for some unknown reason, in the month of January, 1858, in the Kollefjord in Stromo, 

 and perished there, while on the very same day, and in the same manner, a larger shoal 

 of nineteen head were stranded in Qualvig (Firth of whales) in the same island, which events 

 could not but attract the attention of the inhabitants, the more so as they are accustomed to 

 see with what facility the common killers, when they happen to get aground, work themselves 

 afloat again. 



It is evident from Mr. Miiller's written information, as well as from some small sketches 

 made by him of three of the captured killers, that this new species possesses peculiarities, not 

 only in the details of its osteology, but also in its outward appearance, and that more espe- 

 cially its colouring affords a constant and striking character, by which it is clearly distinguished 

 from the two other northern species. For while it presents the general distribution of colour 

 peculiar to the latter and, indeed, as it seems, to the whole genus, we find that, just behind the 

 pectoral fin, the white colour of the belly is continued upwards into the black colour of the 

 upper parts, in the shape of a regular triangle, as is shown in the adjoined copy of one of 

 Mr. Miiller's small sketches.^ 



It cannot be doubted but that the white triangle in the black colour has occasioned the name of 

 " Bovquitequealur" (in Danish, Bovhvidehval, the whale that is white in the region of the 

 shoulder), by which the inhabitants of the Faroes denominate these killers, and thus the name is 

 an additional guarantee for the correctness of the figure as to this important character, even though in 

 other respects it might not be found to be of the strictest accuracy. Mr. Miiller's little sketch, as 

 will be seen, represents the animal with a very high,^ almost straight, and comparatively narrow, 



^ The pectoral fin is indicated only by a dotted line. 



* Its heie;lit in the largest individual was five feet three iaehes, Dan. 



