The killers sometimes combine to attack larger whales, and in Bullen’s interesting book he repeats an account of a combat which he witnessed between a bull cachalot and such a combination of enemies. Two hungry killers and a 16 ft. swordfish joined forces to attack the big whale. The swordfish launched himself at the monster, but the latter turned in time to receive the shock on the head, and the blow glanced off it, the fish rolling helplessly over the top of the whale. With a sudden rapid movement the latter turned, grasped the aggressor with his immense jaws and crunched him into two portions, which he promptly swallowed. Then, with a terrific lash of his tail, he came down on one of the killers, and “crushed it like a shrimp under one’s heel.” Here is Bullen’s conclusion: “The survivor fled—never faster—for an avalanche of living furious flesh was behind him, and coming with enormous leaps half out of the sea every time. Thus they disappeared, but I have no doubt as to the issue. Of one thing I am certain: that if any of the trio survived they never afterwards attempted to rush a cachalot.” Bullen is rather mixed in this narrative. According to a Dr. Frangius, “When an Orca pursues a whale the latter makes a terrible bellowing, like a bull when bitten by a dog.” He may be referring to a Right Whale, for certainly his remark does not apply to the Sperm Whale, which is a dangerous foe to all its enemies.
The Cowfish (Tursiops tursio) is a beaked whale, some 12 ft. long, which has been taken in New Zealand waters. The colour of the back varies from black to lead-colour, while the under-parts are white. It is a species of world-wide range.
So is the last of the whales which I shall mention, the Blackfish (Globicephalus melas), known in the Hebrides and the west of Scotland as the “ca’ing whale.” This is one of the largest of the dolphins, reaching some 20 ft. in length. It is a gregarious species, moving about in great schools or shoals. Its sheep-like habits enable it to be easily driven on shore in herds, when the animals are easily harpooned. Schools of Blackfish not unfrequently visit the inlets and shores of the North of Auckland. Bullen gives an account of an attack on an immense school of Blackfish which the “Cachalot” encountered when near Christmas Island in the mid-Pacific.
Any one interested in the natural history of the sea will find the study of its cetaceans is still in a very incomplete state. Few people know anything about them scientifically, because their occurrence and the opportunity of studying them at first hand are so erratic and rare. When a whale comes ashore it is usually in some inaccessible place, and if the fact is communicated to a museum the finder usually places a considerable price on his discovery, which makes the investigation too expensive to be undertaken. When our fisheries are properly organized it will be possible to study the cetacean fauna much more closely and accurately than is at present the case.
CHAPTER VIII.
CARNIVORA—CATS AND DOGS.
Five species of carnivorous animals (exclusive of menagerie specimens) have been introduced into New Zealand. Cats and dogs are domestic animals of which numerous individuals have gone wild from time to time; while ferrets, stoats, and weasels have been liberated and are now common.
One of the most characteristic features of the land carnivora is “the looseness of their skin, which, instead of being stretched on the body as tightly as a drum-parchment, as it is in grass-eaters—for instance, the ox or hippopotamus—is quite ‘baggy,’ having between it and the flesh of the beast a layer of the loosest possible fibres. It is for this reason that the skin of any but a very fat dog can be pinched up so readily, while of an herbivore it may be said, in the words of eulogy uttered by Mr. Squeers of his son Wackford, ‘Here’s firmness, here’s solidness! Why, you can hardly get up enough of him between your fingers and thumb to pinch him anywheres.’” As Parker says, “The use of this loose skin will be very evident to any one who will take the trouble to watch the great cats playing together at the Zoological Gardens. They are continually scratching one another, but the loose skin is dragged round by the claws, which in consequence can get no hold and do no harm; with a tight skin, on the other hand, the slightest scratch of such a claw as a tiger’s would cause a serious wound. The looseness of the skin is very evident in the puma and jaguar, in which it hangs in a fold along the middle of the belly, like a great dewlap.”