THE KILLER AND THE NARWHAL 385 



teeth in each jaw. Some of them feed on fish, pursuing 

 the shoals of fish in parties or " schools." 



A truly terrible toothed whale is the large porpoise 

 called the killer (known to zoologists as Orca gladiator). 

 He is the wolf of the sea, far more active and formidable 

 than any shark, about 10 ft. long, and strangely marked in 

 black, white, and yellow. He has jaws bigger than those 

 of the largest Mugger crocodile, and a tremendous array of 

 fang-like teeth. These killers hunt the right (or whale- 

 bone) whales in all parts of the world, in parties of three 

 to twelve. They hang on to the lips of their enormous 

 " quarry," and once they get a hold, in twenty minutes tear 

 it into pieces. Often they satisfy themselves with tearing 

 out and devouring the gigantic tongue of their victim, 

 leaving the carcase untouched. 



The narwhal and the white whale, or Beluga,' which 

 furnishes " porpoise-hide " for boots and laces, are both 

 caught in northern seas, and form a. closely allied pair, 

 similar to one another in shape and colour (the one white, 

 the other grey), and of moderate size, about 12 ft. long. 

 They both feed on cuttle-fish and minute shrimps, but the 

 Beluga has many teeth and the narwhal (with the excep- 

 tion of some rudimentary ones) only a single pair, and 

 these in the front of the upper jaw. In the female 

 narwhal this pair of teeth remain permanently concealed 

 in the jaw bone, and so does the right side one of the 

 male. But the left side tooth of the male grows to an 

 enormous size, projecting horizontally in front of the nar- 

 whal to a length of seven or eight feet. It is a powerful 

 weapon, and is formed of ivory spirally grooved on the 

 surface. The narwhal was called " the unicorn fish " or 

 " Monoceras " in ancient times, and its spirally marked 

 tooth was confused with the horn of the terrestrial unicorn 

 — the rhinoceros. Very rarely the right tooth of the male 

 narwhal grows to full size side by side with the left tooth. 



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