THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 123 



Donations were received for the Museum, but in view of the 

 great development of the Natural History Galleries of the British 

 Museum the Council determined to exhibit only generic types. 

 In 1855 the Museum was closed ; the types of species described 

 in the Proceedings and Transactions were handed over to the 

 care of the Trustees of the British Museum, as the Council 

 believed that in this way they would best carry out the wishes 

 of donors and collectors. For the sum of £500 the trustees 

 purchased a valuable series of specimens ; the Queen's Colleges 

 of Cork and Gal way were buyers to the amount of £700, 

 and smaller sums were received from provincial museums and 

 private collectors. 



No volume of Transactions was published in this decade, and 

 in 1857 it was recommended that the issue should be discon- 

 tinued. Fortunately, wiser counsels prevailed. There is much 

 valuable information in the Proceedings by the prominent 

 working Fellows. Owen continued his papers on the great 

 wingless birds of New Zealand, and described the anatomy of 

 the wart-hog, the tree-kangaroo, walrus, and great ant-eater. 

 Dr. Sclater, who became a Fellow in 1850, first contributed to the 

 Proceedings in 1851, and in the following year Flower read his 

 first paper, which dealt with the dissection of a galago. Crisp's 

 series of pathological papers began in 1853 ; and in that year 

 J. E. Gray made the deposit of the walrus the occasion for an 

 article, with figures from the works of Gesner, Olaus Magnus, 

 and other writers. In 1855 Dr. Sclater's Descriptive Catalogue 

 of the Tanagers appeared, and an account of the African 

 lepidosiren at the Crystal Palace, by A. D. Bartlett. Wolley's 

 notes on the nesting of the waxwing were printed in 1857, and 

 Meves's description of the " neighing " of the snipe in 1858, 

 when Dr. Giinther's name first appeared as a contributor. 

 Major Hay's notes on the kiang were given in the volume for 

 1859, and the " interesting fact " — the fertility of the hybrids 

 — referred to in the following passage might well be con- 

 firmed or refuted by experiment: 



That the kiangs do breed with the horse I was assured in Tibet, and 

 that their produce was highly valued. It was also stated that the produce 

 bred again, which is an interesting fact, and proves that the kiang is 

 more nearly allied to the horse than to the ass. 



