7. OKCA. 281 



"When it comes to the surface to respire it remains, like the porpoise, 

 but for an instant, and then dives, describing however in its course 

 a much wider arch." — Flem. B. A. 34. 



Lilljeborg has two species : one he calls " Grampus gladiator, 

 Lacepede," which he describes as having tw;elve pairs of ribs, a 

 white spot on the neck, and a very high dorsal fin ; and the other, 

 " G. Orca, Schlegel," with only eleven pairs of ribs, no white spot on 

 the neck, and a moderately high dorsal fin. The former is evidently 

 the Orca gladiator of the English zoologists ; the other is probably 

 a distinct species ; but it cannot be the Delphinus Orca of Schlegel 

 (Abhandlungen, ii. p. 2. t. 7 & 8), as that species has a distinct white 

 spot on the side of the neck and a high dorsal fin, and well repre- 

 sents the D. Orca of our coast, and the skeletons of the EngUsh 

 specimens which I have been able to examine have only eleven pairs 

 of ribs. 



The accuracy of the following habitats has been authenticated by 

 the examination of the specimens or bones : — Greenwich {Hunter) ; 

 skuU Mus. Coll. Surg. n. 2515. Coast of Essex ; skuU in British 

 Museum. Weymouth (B. Pearce) ; skeleton in British Museum. 

 Lynn Harbour, 19th Nov. 1830 ; skull in Mr. Bell's museum (see 

 Loudon's Mag. N. Hist. iv. 329, figure far too short). A school of 

 ten in the Barrett, near Bridgewater, 24th March 1864 {J. Clark), 

 varying from 11 to 22 feet long. Young specimen in the Thames at 

 Greenwich, 1793 {Banks, in Pennant), length 31 feet ; skeleton in 

 British Museum and Museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons. 

 Ostend, adult male, and female of two years ; adult skeleton, Mus. 

 Louvain. Holland, 1841, 16 feet long • skeleton, Mus. Leyden. 



The Orca gladiator has been twice captured in the Mediterranean. 

 One was taken about twenty years ago at Cette ; its dental formula 

 was J-|- : another came ashore at Elne, Pyrenees orientales, in 1857, 

 but the fragment of the lower jaw, which is preserved, contains ten 

 teeth, so that M. Gervais does not feel sure of its being the same 

 species as the Cette specimen. It is also impossible to say whether 

 it may be identical with the Delphin-us Feres. — Gervais, Ann. ^ Mag. 

 N. H. 1865, XV. 75. M. Gervais, in the ' Zool. et Paleont. Erang.,' 

 figures the skull of D. Orca from Cette. 



Belphinus Orca (Linn. S. Nat. i. 108) is evidently from Orca, Belon, 

 Poiss. 18, Eond. Pise. 433, fig., copied by Gesner, Aquat. 748. In 

 the 'Mantissa,' ii. 523, the reference to the Sehwerdtfisehe of Ander- 

 son and some other whalers is added, and probably from them is 

 taken the following note : — " Bellum gerit cum Phocis, quas ope 

 gladii dorsalis e lapidibus detrudit; Balsenarum Phocarumque ty- 

 rannus, quas turmatim adgreditur. Pinna dorsalis est spina ensi- 

 formis, sexpedalis, cute vestita, basi latior." (Mant. ii. 523.) Bon- 

 naterre gave the name of Belphinus gladiator to Anderson's figure, 

 which represents the dorsal fin as situated near the nape. 



Cuvier believed that the Orca of the ancients was probably a 

 Cachalot, and that the Killer is the Aries marinus of PHny, ^Uan, 

 and the Latins, who compared the white streak behind the eye to a 

 horn. Desmarest (Mamm. 515) confines the name Belphinus Orca 



