8o The Irish Naturalist. [March, 



district (if we exclude from our consideration such as are 

 strickly confined to heathery habitats) may be expected to 

 assume dark characters for protection, as I have noticed is 

 the case with Cidaria immanata. If this prove to be so, it 

 would in part account for the greater abundance of clouded 

 forms in Scotland, as compared with England (exclusive of 

 smoke-vStained districts). 



PROCEEDINGS OF IRISH SOCIETIES. 



RoYAi. Z001.0GICAI. Society. ^ 



Recent donations include a pair of Polecats from A. H. Cocks, Esq., a 

 Tawny Owl from J. Boland, Esq., a monkey from Miss Meldon, a Kestrel 

 from H, K. Richardson, Esq. 4,129 persons visited the Gardens in 

 January. 



January 28th. — The Annual meeting was held at the Royal College 

 of Physicians, when the Report and accounts for the past year were 

 submitted. The financial condition of the Society is satisfactory, the 

 income for 1895 being larger than that for any year since 1882. Reference 

 is made to the loss sustained by the Society in the death of Dr. V. Ball, 

 who acted for so many years as honorary secretary, and a hearty tribute 

 is paid to the work which he did in improving the Gardens. During the 

 year two islands have been built in the lake ; these will afford a welcome 

 nesting-place for the water-fowl. In the excavation left on the lake shore 

 by the removal of material for these islands, a rockery and goat-house is to 

 be formed. But one litter of Lion cubs (two males and a female) were born 

 in the Gardens in 1895, but these are thriving. Ten Puma cubs, in three 

 litters, were born during the year ; of these, five have died and two are 

 weakly, but the last litter (of three) are doing very well. The fine 

 Burchell's Zebra, which had lived twenty-one years in the Gardens, died 

 of old age in October. Another serious loss is that of the female Ostrich, 

 which died of a ruptured aorta. Anthropoid Apes are at present repre- 

 sented by a fine male Chimpanzee and a male Gibbon {Hylobates hacnarus). 

 The latter is an exceptionally rare and valuable animal, no European 

 having ever studied it in its native haunts. A white-tailed Gnu, one of 

 the most interesting of South African Antelopes, has been obtained by 

 exchange from the London Gardens. The appendix to the Report 

 contains some valuable suggestions for the further improvement of the 

 Gardens, such as the enlargement and ventilation of the Anthropoid 

 house and the removal of the reptiles now housed there to new quarters 

 in the Aquarium. A new paddock for Marsupials and another for 

 "Llamas and Camels are also contemplated at some future time. 



