150 
ORDERS OF MAMMALS— WHALES AND PORPOISES 
The following quotation from Captain Scam- 
mon is the testimony of an eye-witness of the 
Orca in action: 
“Three or four of these voracious animals do 
not hesitate to grapple with the largest baleen 
whale. The attack of these wolves of the ocean 
upon their gigantic prey may be likened in some 
respects to a pack of hounds holding a stricken 
deer at bay. They cluster about the animal’s 
head, some of their number breaching over it, 
while others seize it by the lips, and draw the 
bleeding monster under water; and when capt- 
to the bottom where the water was five fathoms 
deep. During the struggle the mother became 
nearly exhausted, having received several deep 
wounds about the mouth and lips. As soon as 
their prize had settled to the bottom, the three 
Killers descended, bringing up large pieces of 
flesh in their mouths, which they devoured after 
coming to the surface. While gorging them- 
selves in this wise, the old whale made her 
escape, leaving a track of gory water behind.” 
The swiftness of the Killer is very great, and 
to all small Cetaceans this savage monster is a 
CALIFORNIA GRAY WHALES ATTACKED BY KILLERS. 
Drawn by J. Carter Beard, from Captain Scammon’s narrative. 
ured, should the mouth be open, they eat out 
its tongue. 
“We once saw an attack made by three Kill- 
ers upon a cow whale and her calf, in a lagoon 
on the coast of California, in the spring of 1858. 
The whale was of the California gray species, 
and her young was grown to three times the bulk 
of the largest Killers engaged in the contest, 
which lasted an hour or more. They made al- 
ternate assaults upon the old whale and her 
offspring, finally killing the latter, which sank 
genuine terror. An eminent naturalist named 
D. F. Eschricht, who devoted much attention to 
the Cetaceans, states that he knew one of these 
animals to capture and swallow alive, and in 
quick succession, four small porpoises, while 
from the stomach of another Killer, but sixteen 
feet long, were taken fourteen seals! In Bering 
Sea the Killer destroys large numbers of fur 
seals, and when walruses were plentiful, even 
made war on them, also. On the Atlantic coast, 
it was, until recently, a common occurrence for 
