OCR Text |
Show 1870.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON T H E GENUS ORCA. 71 The skull figured in the ' Zoology of the Erebus and Terror' under the name of O. capensis is from a specimen received from the Zoological Society, to which it was presented by Capt. Delville, who said he obtained it in the North Pacific (?). It is quite a different species, for which I propose the name of Orca pacifica. I doubt its being from the North Pacific, as I believe there is a skull of the same species in the Paris Museum, collected by M . Eydoux, and said to come from Chili. This reexamination has convinced me, and also, I believe, Mr. Flower, that the skull described under the name of Orca intermedia belongs to a very small species, and is not " the skull of a very young individual, probably of one of the large species," as Mr.Flower supposed, apparently from the examination of the figure (see Flower, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 425). Indeed, when the animal is known, I should not be at all astonished if it should prove to be a large species of Electra rather than of Orca, or perhaps a new genus. The examination of the four skulls of Orca found on the English coast show they belong to two very distinct species, one with a much more attenuated beak than the other. The Orca brevirostris, Owen, is only known from the skull of a very young animal. I have formed for it the genus Orcaella, and consider that it belongs to the tribe Delphinina, and not Orcadina (see Gray, ' Synopsis of Whales and Dolphins,' p. 7). I. The beak from the notch before the orbit the same length as from the notch to the condyles ; the width at the notch three-fifths of the length of the beak. The occipital end of the skull slightly concave; condyles of moderate size; lower jaw broad on the sides, very thick and solid in front. O R C A. A. The beak of the skull tapering and narrow in front, end narrow. G L A D I A T O R. 1. ORCA STENORHYNCHA. (Fig. 1, p. 72, and fig. 3, p. 74.) Orca gladiator, Gray, Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 279. North Sea. Skeleton from Weymouth, and a skull from the English coast. B.M. Intermaxillaries narrow in the middle and rather dilated in front, but the extent of dilatation varies in the two specimens. B. Beak of the skull spatulate; sides of the hinder half nearly parallel, of the front half arched and converging ; end rounded, middle rather wider than at the notch. O R C A. 2. ORCA CAPENSIS, Gray, Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 283. (Fig. 2, p. 73, and fig. 4, p. 75.) Delphinus orca, Owen. Grampus gladiator, Smith, South-African Zool. p. 126. Hab. Cape of Good Hope (Viney, B.M.; Fillette, Mus. Coll. Surg. no. 1139); Seychelles Islands (Swinburne Ward). In the Cape specimen the intermaxillaries are nearly of the same |