20 
> 
ject, made more difficult by the very 
bad light that there was on that day. 
The larger dolphin (Turaops) also oc¬ 
curs in Tasmanian seas, but it appears to 
be more plentiful in the North. It can 
be distinguished by its larger size, and 
the small number of its teeth, also by the 
colour of the body being black above, 
and dirty white below, thus missing all 
the marbled tints found in the true dol¬ 
phin, and the ornate curves of colour 
that adorn its sides. 
The pilot whale or "Blackfish” is com¬ 
mon around the Tasmanian coast, and on 
occasions large numbers are stranded. 
The rapacious killer whale COrea gladia¬ 
tor) is occasionally seen. The members 
of this species have been rightly described 
as the wolves of the ocean. An examina¬ 
tion of the skull shows the enormous 
power possessed by the large and re¬ 
curved teeth. This species, which hunts 
in small packs, will attack the smaller 
dolphins, seals, and even larger whales, 
with great ferocity. It attains a length of 
from tw r entv to thirty feet. Another in¬ 
teresting form, the false killer (Pseudorca) 
attains to about two-thirds of this size, 
but is by no means as well fitted for ag¬ 
gressive warfare as is Orea. 
. u 
,ilU 
|«03 
20/3702 Mercury, Hobart. 
Skeleton of False Killer (P. crassidens). From Proc. Roy. Soc. Tas., 1919. 
