MISCELLA^KA. 299 



r 

 our specimen. Accordiug to Lacepede and Cuvier, tlie number of 

 teeth is f I = 36 ; according to Dr. Neil, f | = 30 ; Crantz, f -| =- 29 ; 

 Anderson, f f == 16 ; as our specimen lias ^^ V = 37, and as there 

 are indications, as already stated, that two on each side have been 

 dropped below, and one on the right side above, the full number is 

 doubtless 42. These differences in the enumeration of the teeth 

 depend, as has been stated by Cuvier, on the age of the animals, — 

 the shedding of them beginning quite early, and eventually, as stated 

 by Anderson, the upper ones are all lost ; so that this last-mentioned 

 observer is disposed to place the " white whale" among the cachalots 

 or sperm-whales, 



*' I am informed by Mr. T, A. Cutting, the proprietor of the 

 Aquarial Gardens, and who is a very careful and trustworthy 

 observer, that this animal, during his confinement, showed some 

 capacity for education. He was sufiiciently well-trained to allow 

 himself to be harnessed to a car, in which he drew" a young lady 

 round the tank ; he learned to recognize his keeper, w^ould allow 

 himself to be handled by him, and at the proper time would come 

 and put his head out of the water to receive the harness or take 

 food." 



*' At times, he showed a playful disposition, and amused himself 

 sometimes wdth splashing about in the water, and at others with 

 tossing stones with his mouth. He often took in his mouth a 

 sturgeon and a small shark which were confined in the same tank, 

 and, after playing with them for a while, allowed them to go un- 

 harmed." 



" Mr. Cutting states that the white whale was less docile than 

 the Delphinus tursio, who was for a time a companion with him in 

 the tank." 



4. Db. W. Petees on Cholcepus HorrMANNi. 



On the 8th Dec. last, Dr. W. Peters, of Berlin, made an inter- 

 esting communication to the E-oyal Academy of Sciences of that 

 city, respecting the osteology of the Costa-Eican Sloth, which he 

 had described some time before as Choloepus Hqffinanni.* Dr. 

 Peters remarked that deviations from the normal number of seven 



* See Mouatsb. Berl. Akad. 1858. p. 128. 



