358 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



their gardens. This specimen was brought from South America with 

 two others that died on the voyage. When first placed in the gardens 

 it appeared exhausted and little disposed to eat, but has since recov- 

 ered. Its favorite food, since it has been in the gardens, is eggs and 

 milk. It sleeps during the greater part of the day ; and seems on the 

 whole an inactive creature, though somewhat additionally active at 

 night. Whilst asleep it covers itself over with its large bushy tail, 

 which acts as a kind of blanket. Under its tail its body lies partially 

 curved, with its fore and hind feet locked in each other. The head is 

 placed between the fore legs. On being disturbed it lifts up its head : 

 which is the most striking part of the animal, on account of the great 

 length of the snout. The snout and face have no hairs ; which gives 

 the head very much the appearance of that of some of the larger 

 grallatorial birds, as the storks and cranes. The ant-eater has 

 rather long legs and a thin long body. It seems, however, to stand 

 awkwardly, and its gait is a kind of shuffle. All who have seen it 

 in its native haunts speak of its slow movements and its stupidity of 

 character; and this report the appearance of this specimen in the 

 gardens would confirm. Its tail is very large, and long for its body. 

 Whilst the animal is moving about, the tail appears to occupy more 

 space than all the rest of its body besides. 



The large ant-eater belongs to a family of animals, the Edentata, of 

 which there are but few living representatives at the present day. 

 They were, however, at one time numerous, and numbered amongst 

 them the largest and most powerful animals on the face of the earth. 

 They are almost peculiar to South America ; and the extinct forms 

 which include the Megatherium, the Megalonyx, the Mylodon, and the 

 Glyptodon have been found on that continent only. The present 

 animal is the largest of the family that is left on the surface of the 

 earth ; and it possesses, with all its congeners, great interest on ac- 

 count of its relation to the extraordinary animals whose remains only 

 are left to us. 



VIVIPAROUS FISH. 



A remarkable fact in Natural History is developed by Prof. Agassiz, 

 in the November number of Sillirnan's Journal viz : the existence of 

 fish producing living young. Mr. A. C. Jackson, a gentleman attached to 

 the Navy-Yard Commission on the California coast, while fishing in 

 San Salita Bay, caught with a hook and line a fish of the perch family 

 containing several young, properly developed and lively. The occur- 

 rence seemed so extraordinary that Mr. Jackson was induced to send 

 the specimens to Prof. Agassiz, at Cambridge. They were examined 

 by the Professor, and are pronounced by him to be an entirely new 

 species. He proposes for them the Generic name of Embiatoca, in 

 allusion to their peculiar mode of reproduction. 



The body of the fish is compressed, oval, covered with scales of a 

 medium size. The scales are cycloid, differing from those of other 

 fishes which possess an exterior resemblance to this style. The pos- 



