5 2 
CETACEANS. 
long-finned males and the shorter-finned females may be found in the same school, 
while at other times the two sexes keep apart. The swiftness of the killer is very 
great, as it is able to overtake the smaller dolphins, which it swallows alive. Its 
voracity is apparently insatiable; Eschricht stating that one of these animals was 
known to swallow four porpoises in succession, while from the stomach of another 
individual, whose length did not exceed 16 feet, were taken fourteen seals. 
Whales attacked Like the other larger members of the order, the Greenland whale 
by Killers. j s sometimes attacked by a party of killers. Writing on the subject 
of these attacks Captain Scammon says that “ three or four of these voracious 
animals do not hesitate to grapple with the largest baleen-whale; and it is surprising 
to see those leviathans of the deep so completely paralysed by the presence of 
their natural, although diminutive enemies. Frequently the terrified animal— 
comparatively of enormous size and superior strength—evinces no effort to escape, 
but lies in a helpless condition, or makes but little resistance to the assaults of 
its merciless destroyers. The attack of these wolves of the ocean upon their 
THE KILLER. 
(From True, Bulletin of the U . S . National Museum , 1889.) 
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 captured, should the mouth be open, they eat out 
its tongue. We once saw an attack made by three killers 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 grey species, and her young was grown to three times the 
bulk of the largest killers engaged in the contest, which lasted for an hour or 
more. They made alternate assaults upon the old whale and her offspring, finally 
killing the latter, which sank 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 themselves 
in this wise, the old whale made her escape, leaving a track of gory water behind.” 
On the 9th of September 1893, when off the coast of Minas Geraes, Brazil, at 
no great distance from the islands of Los Abrolhos, in long. 39° W., lat. 18° S., the 
attention of the present writer was attracted by the appearance of a whale and 
some other creatures at a distance of apparently something less than a quarter of 
