| OCR Text |
Show 76' DR. J. K. GRAY ON THE GENUS ORCA. [Jan. 2", width in the whole of their length j in the Seychelles skull they are contracted in the greater part of their length, and rather dilated in front. 3. ORCA LATIROSTRIS. Delphinus orca, Cuv. Oss. Foss. v. tab. 22. fig. 4 (skull). The skull very similar to that of the Cape species, but much smaller; but the beak is rather narrower, the intermaxillaries moderately broad, slightly dilated in front. Hub. North Sea. An adult skull from the coast of Essex (361 a), and another without the lower jaw, are in the British Museum. These skulls of the smaller British or, rather, European Orca are distinguishable from those of O. gladiator by the smaller size and the broader, rounder nose-and from the skulls of the Cape-of-Good- Hope species by being of a much smaller size, and having a depressed crown of the head. I believe the skull figured under the name of Delphinus orca by Cuvier, Oss. Foss. vol. v. tab. 22. figs. 3, 4, represents this species, from the form of the beak and the narrowness of the occiput: this figure has been copied by various British and other authors. Gervais, in the ' Zoology and Paleontology of France,' figures the skull of a young Delphinus orca, taken on the coast of Cette, which is now in the Museum of Paris. It appears to belong to this species, or it may be that the Orca of the Mediterranean does not grow to the usual size; or, again, it may be of a different species, for the skull is only fifty-eight centimetres long and thirty broad. 4. ORCA MAGELLANICA. Orca magellanica, Burmeister, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3. vol. xviii. p. 101 j An. Mus. Publ. de Buenos Ayres, vol. i. p. 373, tab. 22. Hab. Patagonia (Mus. Buenos Ayres). This species, according to the figure, is very like Orca latirostris. II. The beak from the notch before the orbit the same length as from the notch to the condyle; width at the notch two-thirds the entire length of the beak. Intermaxillaries very narrow, sliyhtly dilated in front; brain-cavity broad; occiput deeply concave. Lower jaw very broad on the sides, very thick and solid in front. OPHYSIA, Gray, Synopsis of Whales and Dolphins, p. 8. 5. ORCA PACIFICA. Delphinus globiceps, Grant, P. Z. S. 1833, p. 65. Delphinus orca, Eydoux, Mus. Paris. Orca capensis, Cray, Zool. Erebus and Terror, p. 34, tab. 9, not Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 283. Orca (Ophysia) capensis, Gray, Synopsis of Whales and Dolphins, p. 8, tab. 9 (skull). Hab. North Pacific (Capt. Delville, R.N.). Skull, from the Zoological Society's collection. |
