19« THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



children, and even adults, on the ways and habits of the various 

 prisoners of the Society ? " And the probable results were thus 

 summed up: 



Experts in zoology, perhaps, few would ever become, but the true 

 stories of animals would certainly arouse greater interest in their 

 existence and make plainer the marvellous ways and means of Nature, 

 while instilling into many children that love, kindness, and forbearance 

 towards even the humblest of God's creatures, which shall in after life 

 make them better men and women. Lastly, the development of some such 

 idea as has been imperfectly set out would unquestionably increase the 

 popularity and at the same time the finances of the Zoological Society. 

 Can it not be given a trial? 



The eighth edition of the Vertebrate List was published in 

 1883, and contained the names of 2,557 species — 667 mammals, 

 1,447 birds, 307 reptiles, 48 batrachians, and 88 fishes. 



A supplement to the third edition of the Library Catalogue 

 appeared in 1883 ; this contained about a thousand titles, raising 

 the total to more than 4,000. By the Anniversary Meeting of 

 1884 the whole collection had been transferred to the present 

 library, reclassified and arranged. In the following year the 

 books were, valued at £12,000. The fourth edition of the 

 Catalogue was brought out in 1887, and the titles had then 

 risen to a little over 6,500. In 1888 Mme. Cornely, widow of 

 M. J. M. Cornely of Tours, an old and valued Corresponding 

 Member, bequeathed to the Society her husband's zoological 

 library. This consisted of about 840 volumes, of which 256 

 were new to the Society's library, and many of the books thus 

 acquired were rare and difficult to obtain by purchase. In 

 1889 the Council voted £25 towards the expenses of publish- 

 ing a very useful little volume — " Index Generum Avium " — 

 compiled by Mr. F. H. Waterhouse, the Librarian. This list of 

 the genera and sub-genera of birds, established since the days of 

 Linnaeus, was aptly described in the Keport as a " laborious 

 piece of scientific work." 



Nearly twelve hundred communications were made to the 

 Scientific Meetings of this decade, all of which appeared, in full 

 or in abstract, in the Proceedings. Bartlett sent five papers, 

 of which by far the most important is that on Some Bovine 

 Animals bred in the Society's Gardens, in the volume for 1884. 



