principal source of reduction in the year's income consists 

 in the comparatively small amount which has been derived 

 from the admission of the public to the Gardens ; and they 

 attribute this diminution of the Receipts to the backward 

 Spring of the past year and the shortness of the succeeding 

 Summer. The Council consider that the deficiency may, 

 in a great measure, be satisfactorily explained upon the 

 above-mentioned grounds ; but they would at the same time 

 remind the Members, that during the year 1837 no oppor- 

 tunity presented itself of inii'oducing to the Gardens any 

 new object of paramount attraction. A natural consequence 

 of the success which has hitherto attended the exertions of 

 the Society, in its attempt to give the public at large an 

 opportunity of becoming acquainted with such of the pro- 

 ductions of the animal kingdom as had been, prior to its 

 formation, rarely or never imported alive to this country, is, 

 that the number of these desiderata becomes diminished, 

 and the difficulty of procuring new objects of attraction 

 proportionately increased. Tlie Council, however, are fully 

 sensible of the importance to the Society, both as regards 

 its immediate interests and scientific objects, of having in 

 the Menagerie as complete a series of living animals as 

 possible ; and they have determined to spare no exertion in 

 their endeavours to carry into effect the accomplishment of 

 this purpose. The animals to which the Council have re^ 

 cently directed their attention and inquiries, with a view to 

 the importation of living specimens, are the Hippopotamus 

 and Chimpanzee. The frequent but unsuccessful attempts 

 made by friends of the Society to procure individuals of the 

 latter prove the extreme difficulty which exists in the at-? 

 tainment of this object ; but the recent success which has 

 crowned the efforts of the Council in the preservation of a 

 nearly allied species, the Orang, during the late severe 

 winter, holds out to them a strong incentive to persevere in 

 their endeavours to obtain so desirable an acquisition to 

 the Collection. 



While on the subject of the Finances, the Council think 

 it proper to slate, that they have appointed a Sub-conunittee 



