96 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Chimpanzee, with the feathers of the birds it eats. The Killers, 

 indeed, are the terror of their neighbours in the ocean, for a 

 few of them will drive a herd of White Whales shorewards in 

 terror, and they even beach themselves in their efforts to escape 

 these predaceous animals, which bite large portions from their 

 fleeing prey, so that the surface of the water is covered with oil 

 and blubber, for, like other carnivorous forms, they kill and 

 lacerate more than they can possibly eat. The fondness of Orca 

 for the White Whale seems to be the explanation of the pursuit of 

 a white-painted boat off the Outer Hebrides by a large example. 

 The fishermen on board had great difficulty in beating it off 

 with oars and a boat-hook, and as quickly as possible gained the 

 shore. The larger Whales, such as the Blue Whale (Sibbald's 

 Eorqual) and the Hump-backed Whale {Mec/aptera), are also 

 attacked by the Killers, and severely lacerated or killed* 

 The great voracity of these animals is well shown in the careful 

 description of a specimen, 21 ft. long, by Prof. Eschricht, who 

 found that the first stomach was about 6 ft. long and 4 ft. broad. 

 On opening it he at once discovered five or six Seals, some large, 

 others small, all flayed, and so closely intertwined that it was 

 necessary to pull them out one by one to count them. But this 

 was not all ; gradually Porpoises were disclosed, one entire, the 

 rest more or less digested, or represented only by bones. The 

 examination by this competent anatomist showed that when the 

 contents were carefully assorted no fewer than fourteen Seals 

 and thirteen Porpoises had recently been devoured. The Killers 

 frequently attacked the young Californian Grey Whales, and 

 have been known to pull down a captured Whale when boats 

 were towing it to the ship. 



The sense of sight in most of the Toothed Whales is tolerably 

 acute, and, indeed, the eye of such as the Killer is larger in 

 proportion than that of the Whalebone Whale. Many of the 

 larger forms have a habit of thrusting their heads above water 

 to reconnoitre when they suspect danger, as, for instance, the 

 Pilot-Whales when they have been embayed, or the Sperm-Whale 

 when hunted. Though the auditory canal is small and there is 

 no external ear, the sense of hearing is fairly developed. The 

 organs of smell are, on the other hand, in a rudimentary con- 

 dition or apparently absent, and in this respect they are inferior 



