11 



the Council as their primary object ; and they have the 

 gratification of being able to report that while very few 

 species of importance have been lost, some of the most 

 interesting additions have been acquired for the Collection. 



In the first rank of these ought to be mentioned the 

 Anteaters, the Asiatic Lions, and the Leipoas, recently 

 obtained from South Australia. 



Of the Anteaters it is not too much to say, that, in a 

 scientific point of view, they are much the most interesting 

 form which the Society has ever possessed : and as the 

 manner in which they have been treated during the winter 

 has been attended with as much success as the difficulty 

 of substituting an artificial condition for their natural 

 circumstances would admit, there is every reason to hope 

 that these curious animals will continue to gratify public 

 attention throughout the summer, and perhaps for a much 

 longer period. 



For the Asiatic Lions the Society is indebted to Sir 

 Erskine Perry, formerly Chief Justice of Bombay, through 

 whose influence these extremely beautiful specimens of 

 an animal, which is rapidly becoming more and more 

 limited in numbers, were obtained from the Nawab of 

 Janaghra, on the confines of Goojerat. 



The question of specific distinction is at all times one 

 of considerable intricacy between animals which are so 

 closely allied as the Asiatic and African Lions, and the 

 opportunity which has been thus afforded of comparing 

 them in the same building, and at nearly identical ages, 

 adds not a little to the value of Sir Erskine Perry^s im- 

 portant donation. 



The health of the animals in the Menagerie, as evinced 

 by the numerous births of valuable species, has been gene- 

 rally above the average of previous years ; but two re- 

 markable exceptions have occurred, viz. in the Felidae in- 

 habiting the Terrace, and in the Reptiles. 



Of the former a considerable number of specimens, in- 

 cluding two adult Tigers, died between the 27th December 

 and 24th March, from the I'esults of a disease of which the 

 origin is at present by no means clear. The previously 

 unparalleled riches of the Society in this branch of the 

 Menagerie has fortunately prevented these losses from 

 being felt so severely as would have been the case in 

 former times ; and the desideratum created by the death 

 of the Tigers has been already in part filled up by purchase. 



