KILLER, a kind of whale, or large por poise, also called orca or grampus, of the family Delphinide, and constituting the genus Orcinus: It reaches a length of about 25 feet. The head is rounded and the lower jaw is a little shorter than the upper. The dorsal fin is extraor dinarily high in the adult males, like a broad sword, nearly vertical and about six feet in length from base to tip; in the female it is prominent but much lower. The pectoral fins are large, broad and rounded, and the flukes, or tail-fin, also broad and thick. The color is peculiar, being black above and on the fins, and white below ; the margins of the two colors sharply defined. The white of the belly ex tends forward to the end of the lower jaw, and upward on each side where it forms a large, oblong, white area. Above and somewhat be hind the eye is a conspicuous oblong, white spot. In the young the white areas are tinged with yellow. The upper and lower jaws are
armed with thick, powerful, somewhat curved teeth, numbering in all from 40 to 56. The killer is the largest and most powerful repre sentative of the dolphin family. It hunts in packs and is rapacious and exceedingly vora cious. Unlike all other cetaceans it feeds upon warm-blooded aquatic animals, and chiefly on young seals, porpoises and whales. It attacks the larger whales without hesitation, biting them on the lips and throat, sometimes in order to force them to surrender their young, which are torn to pieces and devoured. In one instance the stomach of a killer was found to contain the bodies of 13 porpoises and 14 seals. The best-known species (Orcinus orca) inhabits all seas. A second species is found in the South Pacific. Others have been described, but their validity is doubtful.