218 REINHARDT ON PSEUDORCA CRASSIDENS. 



we also take the different osteological differences mentioned above into consideration, it seems to 

 me, that we must come to the conclusion, that the species here treated of cannot find its place 

 much more naturally in the genus Gramjms than among the Glohioccphali. 



The next question is then, whether our dolphin is a killer {Orcd) ? We have seen that it 

 has been considered as such by J. E. Gray, who was, however, only acquainted with it from the 

 cranium discovered in the English fen, and this opinion of Dr. Gray's may at all events be 

 considered as a proof of my not having overrated, in the preceding pages, the resemblance between 

 our dolphin and the killer in this part of the skeleton. But this supposition, though, perhaps, 

 quite justifiable, as long as the skull and the cervical vertebrae were all that we had to go by, 

 cannot now be maintained any longer, the whole animal being known both as to its external 

 appearance and its osteology. Our dolphin, come back, as it were, from the dead, appears to 

 me to present sufficient differences in both these respects, to entitle us to consider it as the type 

 of a special genus, the place of which will be between Orca and Grampus, and for which I 

 propose the name of Pseudorca. The most essential external distinguishing marks between 

 this and the genus Orca will be found then in the shape of the body, generally speaking, more 

 slender and extended in length ; in the small and pointed pectoral fins, so completely different 

 from the large, very broad, and oval pectoral fins of the killers ; and finally in the smaller and 

 differently shaped back-fin ; but besides these the snout of the killers, less blunt than that of our 

 species, and the very peculiar coloviring characteristic of the former, might we think also afford 

 distinguishing characters of the two genera. The osteological characters of the two genera 

 have been sufficiently illustrated above. This new genus will form a connecting link, hitherto 

 wanted, between the genus Orca and the genera Grampus and Glohiocephalus, and thus it will, 

 if necessary, serve to prove how unsafe the opinion is, that the killers, from a systematic point of 

 view, ought most properly to be considered as a division among the toothed-whales of more than 

 generic worth, " as a group or family by themselves,"^ an opinion lately expressed, but as I 

 think neither sound in itself, nor, indeed, supported by any defensible reason. 



One observation about this species must still find a place here. The female thrown ashore 

 at Asnæs was stated to be nineteen feet long, and though its skull is, indeed, no larger than 

 those of the two other, and smaller, individuals, yet the other bones of its skeleton which I 

 succeeded in obtaining for my use, will show that it really must have been an animal not a 

 little larger than the latter. The dolphin captured in the harbour of Kiel, also a female, which 

 Professor Behn was kind enough to inform me was pregnant, but most probably only for the 

 first time, and which, accordingly, we suppose was scarcely an old and full-grown animal, 

 measured little more than sixteen feet. The male thrown ashore at Middelfart, most undoubtedly 

 rather an old animal, was, on the other hand, about fourteen feet long, at the most. Thus the 

 question remains whether in the Pseudorca, there may not possibly be a difference in the sizes 

 of the different sexes, and whether the females are not larger, but at the same time, perhaps, 

 provided with a head comparatively smaller, than that of the males. The question can of course 

 only be solved by more numerous opportunities of observation, but I think it worthy of 

 consideration. 



been able to learn that such a want of teeth in the ca'ing-whale has ever been observed in the Faroe 

 Islands. 



^ 'Oversigt over det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger,' Mai, 1862, p. 87. 



