PORPOISES, DOLPHINS, AND WHALES 



27 



consisting chiefly of fish, which porpoises not only catch in the 

 open sea, but also pursue into estuaries. 



The highly predatory Killer- Whale {Orca gladiator) (fig. 319) 

 may be as much as 26 feet long, and resembles in appearance 

 a gigantic porpoise. Its propensities are described by Vogt (in 

 The Natural History of Mammals) in the following words: — 

 " They are the absolute tyrants of the seas, and work fearful 



Fig. 320. — Dolphin {Delphimis delf>kis) 



slaughter among the seals and among other cetaceans. Eschricht, 

 a Danish anatomist, who has occupied himself with the Cetacea 

 in a very thorough manner, found a seal sticking in the throat of 

 a killer- whale of about 1 6 feet in length, which had owed its death 

 to its voracity, since it was prevented from swallowing this seal by 

 having thirteen porpoises and fourteen seals already engulfed in 

 its stomach! The shoals of killer- whales attack the largest ceta- 

 ceans, and vanquish them. They are said to be peculiarly fond 

 of the fat, fleshy tongues of the whalebone whales." One would 

 rather like to know the collective bulk of the thirteen porpoises 

 and fourteen seals mentioned in the preceding extract. The teeth 

 of the killer- whale are all placed in the front of the mouth, and are 

 forty-four in number. They are of conical shape and backwardly 

 curved. 



The Common Dolphin i^Delphinus delphis) (fig. 320) is rather 



