228 DR. H. BURMEISTER ON A NEW PORPOISE. [Feb. 28, 
“From a letter of Dr. W. Peters in the ‘ Proceedings of the Zool. 
Soc.’ 1864, p. 377, I find that a casual word of mine has given that 
gentleman some annoyance which on my part was not intended. 
“On handing over the Reptiles collected by me in Eastern Tropical 
Africa to the British Museum, Dr. Gray remarked that one of them, 
Gerrhosaurus robustus, was, according to Dr. Peters, named ‘Caazia i 
by the natives of Tete. 
« T had not then seen Dr. Peters’s paper ‘On the Reptiles of Mos- 
sambique,’ and I remarked that this word meant in the native lan- 
guage ‘I don’t know.’ To this I attached no importance, nor was it 
meant for publication ; still less was I aware that the word ‘ Caaiia’ 
had been a misprint. 
“Dr. Livingstone writes me thus :—‘ Mr. Moffat has been collect- 
ing words in the Sechuana language for the last forty-three years, 
and finds new ones every week. In eight years I had upwards of 
seven thousand, and rejected many hundreds either as uncouth or to 
me quite useless. I think there were eleven names for a lion, and 
no end of words meaning different shades of fools”! 
“ Dr. Peters has referred me to a vocabulary of the Mozambique 
languages, published by Dr. Wm. H. J. Black, from manuscripts of 
his and from other materials, now including minerals. Only about 
900 words are given here, whereas, judging from what Dr. Living- 
stone says of the Sechuana, this dialect must contain an equal num- 
ber of terms; and no one could, in my opinion, in nine months col- 
lect even the common expressions. Let me assure Dr. Peters that 
there is no necessity for supposing that the language has changed 
since 1845, because one word is omitted from his vocabulary. 
“The word ‘ penu,’ which Dr. Peters gives as signifying ‘ I don’t 
know,’ does so only inferentially, and means literally ‘ perhaps,’ 
‘it may be,’ ‘possibly.’ There are other expressions more definite, 
and in common use. 
“In regard to the last part of Dr. Peters’s letter, I will remark that 
the majority of Tette fowls live in the huts of the people, and not on 
erches. And I may remind him of the wide-spread idea in Africa 
that the bite of the Chameleon (Chameleon dilepis) is venomous to 
man, although it possesses no means of inflicting more than a slight 
squeeze with its weak jaws. He will therefore possibly concede that 
the same people may believe that the Gerrhosaurus kills fowls.” 
The following papers were read :— 
1. DescRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF PORPOISE IN THE 
Museum or Buenos Ayres. By Dr. H. Burmeister, 
F.M.Z.S8. 
PHOCZNA SPINIPINNIS, sp. Nov. 
The animal has the general figure of the common European spe- 
cies, but differs entirely in the position of the dorsal fin, which is 
placed further backwards, and has spines on the upper edge. 
The whole body is black, without any other colour, and the sur- 
