ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 315 
are very secondary objects, although from the exhi- 
bition of the former, at one shilling each person, 
the public are tempted to believe it is much more 
extensive than others, which can be seen for no- 
thing: it nevertheless derives much interest to the 
naturalist as containing the Sumatrian animals col- 
lected by Sir Stamford Rafiles, and the North Ame- 
rican birds described by Richardson and Swainson. 
Why these latter, collected at the public expense, 
and therefore public property, should not have been 
deposited in the National Museum, rather than have 
been given to a society of private individuals, is an 
enigma we cannot solve. That this donation was — 
made without any regard to the interests of science 
is obvious from this simple fact, that, in their pre- 
sent situation, the specimens can only be seen by 
payment, nor can any scientific use be made of them 
but by permission of the council, and “ at the dis- 
cretion of the secretary:” whereas, had they gone 
to the British Museum, they might.have been seen 
gratis, and used freely, without any such formal, 
tedious, and restricted regulations. The urbanity 
and liberal feeling of the secretary, indeed, is well 
calculated to diminish the inconvenience of debar- 
ring men of science from the free use of the materials 
it possesses. It is well known that admission to the 
privileges of a Fellow of the Zoological Society is a 
matter of no great difficulty. The forms of recom- 
mendation and election are observed, as in other 
societies ; but they are little more than forms. Upon 
the whole, however, the scientific character of the 
society, within the last two years, has much improved, 
and will doubtless continue so to do, as liberal feel- 
