IV PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION. 



of all the animals that we have received up to the end 

 of 1882, with the date and mode of acquisition of each 

 specimen. 



The result is a nearly complete catalogue of all the living 

 Vertebrates received by the Society during the past twenty- 

 two years. It is not, however, quite complete, as in the two 

 first editions the references to some of the specimens which 

 had been lost by death or departure were struck out. But 

 commencing from January 1st, 1864, I believe that nearly 

 every specimen received will be found to have been inserted 

 in its proper place, although there may of course have been 

 errors in the determination of the species. 



For many years it has been my practice to bring before 

 the scientific meetings of the Society short notices of the 

 more important accessions to the Menagerie, with the object 

 of calling attention to such as are of special interest. These 

 notices are subsequently printed and published in the ' Pro- 

 ceedings' of the Scientific Meetings. Both our ' Proceedings ' 

 and ' Transactions ' also contain frequent communications 

 referring to specimens living, or that have previously lived, 

 in the Society's Gardens. I thought that it would enhance 

 the value of the List to add references to the ( Proceedings ' 

 and ' Transactions ' in all these cases, so as to make 

 a sort of index to numerous passages in our scientific 

 publications that refer to specimens in the. Society's col- 

 lection. 



When animals have been figured in our publications from 

 specimens in the Gardens, a reference to the figure is like- 

 wise added. 



The following Table gives the number of Species of each 

 Class of Animals registered in the successive editions of 

 this List, and thus to a certain extent indicates the progress 

 of the Collection : 



