TBE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 143 



pheasant. Five males and a female of the last-named species 

 were received. This pheasant breeds freely in confinement and 

 in the open covert. Hybrids between the cock Amherst and the 

 hen golden pheasant are of surpassing beauty.^ At the sale of 

 the surplus stock from the Antwerp Gardens in 1872 a male 

 hybrid was sold for £35. 



Two deer, new to science, were received in the last year of 

 the decade. Both were from the Philippines ; the first was the 

 Blackish Deerf allied to the sambur, and the other Prince 

 Alfred's Deer, named by the Secretaryf in honour of the Duke 

 of Edinburgh, who presented it. The latter bears a general 

 resemblance to the axis, but the coat is dark chocolate-brown. 

 A kakapo, the ground parrot of New Zealand, was received on 

 deposit, and remained in the aviaries about six weeks, when 

 the owner removed it, "after some unavailing attempts to 

 come to terms with us as to its price." 



The silver medal was awarded in 1862 to Dr. George Bennett 

 for his many valuable donations, and in 1869 to Sir Rutherford 

 Alcock for his gift of a pair of Pere David's deer. In 1866 the 

 bronze medal was given to Henry Hunt, Mathew Scott, and 

 Benjamin Misselbrook, keepers, for their meritorious success in 

 breeding foreign animals in the Gardens; and in 1869 Mr. 

 William Penney, a Fellow of the Society, received it for his 

 numerous donations to the fish house. 



The increasing prosperity of the Society amply justified the 

 policy of appointing a paid Secretary. In 1847 the income was 

 only £7,765. Early in that year D. W. Mitchell entered on his 

 duties ; he resigned in April, 1859, and the receipts for the 

 previous year had risen to £14,034. Dr. Sclater succeeded him, 

 and by the end of 1870 the income amounted to £23,257, and 

 during the decade which closed with this year upwards of 

 £46,000 was devoted to the permanent embellishment of the 

 Gardens. 



*Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, in his "Pheasants for Coverts and Aviaries" (ed. iii. 

 p. 204), says : " There can be no possible doubt of the perfect fertility of the half- 

 bred Amhersts . . . and an intermediate breed may be perpetuated which pos- 

 sesses the united beauty of both parent species, and be perfectly permanent in 

 its characters." 



f Brooke, in Proceedings, 1877, p. 57, pi. ix. 



X Froceedings, 1870, p. 381 ; ibid. 1871, p. 237. 



