Zoological Society. ^95 



March 27. — A Report from Devereux Fuller, the Head Keeper, 

 was read. It was communicated to the Committee by the President. 



It referred to the experiments on the feeding of carnivorous Mam- 

 malia recommended by the Committee on Dec. 13, 1831, (Phil. 

 Mag. and Annals, N.S. vol. xi. pp. 140, 288.) and subsequently or- 

 dered by the Council to be tried. The animals subjected to the 

 experiment were two Leopards and two Hycenas: the whole of them 

 were males. 



On Jan. 11. the Leopards were weighed. No. 1 weighed 911bs.: 

 it was fed in the usual manner with 4lbs. of beef daily in one meal 

 given in the evening. No. 2 weighed lOO^lbs. : it was supplied with 

 2lbs. of beef at eight o'clock in the morning, and with a like quan- 

 tity at the same hour in the evening daily. On Feb. 16, (after aa 

 interval of five weeks,) they were again weighed. No. 1 had gained 

 in weight lib.: No. 2 had diminished in weight |Ib. No alteration 

 was observed in the latter animal as regarded his daily exercise ; 

 but he became more ferocious than he had previously been, and was 

 particularly violent. 



On Dec. 23 the Hycenas were weighed. No. 1 weighed 86Ibs.: it 

 was fed as usual with Sibs. of beef daily at one meal in the evening. 

 No. 2 weighed 93lbs. : it was supplied with the same quantity of 

 beef daily, divided into two equal portions, one of which was given 

 in the morning and the other in the evening. On Feb. 16, (after 

 an interval of eight weeks,) they were again weighed; and No. 1 

 was found to have increased in weight lib., while No, 2 had di- 

 minished in weight lib. The latter animal was observed to take 

 less exercise than he had previously been accustomed to, and slept 

 more than usual : his temper was not affected, and he did not ex- 

 hibit unusual signs of hunger. 



During the continuance of the experiment all the animals were 

 fasted one day in each week in common with the other carnivorous 

 species kept in the Menagerie. 



From these experiments it appears that carnivorous Mammalia 

 fed with two meals daily, do not continue in equally good condition 

 with those which have the same quantity of flesh daily in one meal 

 only. It further appears that in one instance (that of the Leopard,) 

 the temper changed for the worse, and thus animals of the genus 

 Fclis might become more dangerous in a Menagerie from the ferocity 

 they would acquire under such treatment ; and that in another in- 

 stance the habits were altered as regarded exercise, a diminution of 

 which, in confined animals, must be injurious to health. The in- 

 ference deduced in the Report is consequently in favour of the con- 

 tinuance of the accustomed mode of feeding the purely carnivorous 

 animals with one meal daily. 



The Report further stated that an experiment had been tried at 

 the same time on the feeding of two animals less completely carni- 

 vorous than the preceding. They were weighed on Jan. 11. No. 1, 

 a Paradoxurc Gcunet, weighed i-^lbs.: it was fed as usual with bread 

 and milk in the morning, and with meat in the evening. No. 2, a 

 ipolkd Gennct, weighed 71bs.; it was led with equal i)ortions of 

 3E2 



