13 



III. GARDEN ESTABLISHMENT. 

 1. Works. 



The only work undertaken during the past year is the 

 construction of a Den and Inclosure, with a Bath, for the 

 Polar Bear. The extraordinary size and strength of the 

 animal now in the Society's Collection rendered this 

 necessary. Since the Bear has been removed to his pre- 

 sent abode, a marked improvement has taken place in his 

 health and general appearance. The erection of the new 

 Den has enabled the Council to apply the former Polar 

 Bear House to Bears of another species, an accommoda- 

 tion the want of which liad long been felt. 



The Repairs throughout tlie Gardens have been eftected 

 to a considerable extent, and conducted with a strict 

 attention to their permanence and stability. 



The Council have much pleasure in being able to an- 

 nounce to the Society that they have, within a few days, 

 added to the Collection at the Gardens a Porcupine Ant- 

 Eater [Echidna Hj/sfrix), the first specimen of that animal 

 that has been exhibited alive in Europe, and one of very 

 great interest to zoologists. 



The Council have the satisfaction of reporting, that not- 

 withstanding the miusual length and inclemency of the 

 past Avinter (the thermometer having on more than one 

 occasion descended as low as 3° of Fahrenheit), the experi- 

 ment of keeping the Carnivora in open Dens, exposed to 

 the air and wholly without artificial heat, continues to 

 prove most successful. In the last Annual Report of the 

 Council, it is stated that the average of deaths in the 

 former house among the Carnivora was one, at least, in 

 every month ; whereas, except among animals which Were 

 removed from the former house in a diseased state, there 

 has not been a single case of death from disease in the 

 present Dens since September 1843, when the animals 

 were first placed therein. 



This experiment having proved so successful among the 

 Carnivora, the Council have been induced to suspend the 

 use of the hot-water apparatus, and to limit artificial heat 

 in the Monkey House to one small open fire-place only ; 



