162 Dr. P. L. Sclater on Testudo chilensis &c. 



In it will be found the English and scientific name, sex, and 

 locality, so far as these are ascertainable, of every vertebrate 

 animal received alive by the Society, together with informa- 

 tion as to how it was obtained, whether by presentation, pur- 

 chase, or otherwise. A corresponding register is kept of all 

 the deaths that occur in the Society's Gardens, and of the 

 mode in which the bodies are disposed of. This lies also on 

 the table. Both these registers, which are kept at the Super- 

 intendent's office in the Gardens, are, I need hardly say, at 

 all times open to the inspection of the Fellows of the Society, 

 or of any other person interested in them. ]\Ioreover, in order 

 to give greater publicity to the list of arrivals, a copy of them 

 is published every week in the ' Field ' newspaper. 



" From the earliest days of the Society's existence it has 

 been the practice to keep a register of ' arrivals and depar- 

 tures ' in the daily journal of ' occurrences,' as it is termed, 

 prepared by the Superintendent. Ever since the day when 

 I had the honour of becoming Secretary of the Society, the 

 register of accessions has been carefully revised every month, 

 and printed in the ' Proceedings.' This was at first done 

 month by month* ; but it was thought afterwards to be more 

 convenient to give the list of additions for the year continu- 

 ously, so that since 1862 it has been printed entire as an 

 ' Appendix ' to the yearly volume of ' Proceedings.' At the 

 same time it has been my constant practice (as those here, who 

 have so often had to listen to me, must be fully aware) to 

 bring before the scientific meetings such notices as seemed to 

 be requisite of all the more remarkable additions to the 

 Society's collection, so as to call more immediate attention to 

 every accession of special interest. I have likewise edited 

 and published for the Society four editions of the list of Ver- 

 tebrated Animals in the Society's Gardens, and am now en- 

 gaged in preparing a fifth edition, which will contain a record 

 of every accession received up to the close of last year, and 

 will thus form a complete list of all the animals that have 

 been living in the Society's Gardens during the past ten years. 

 I have been induced to trouble the meeting with these few 

 remarks, because, in the last number of the 'Annals of Natural 

 History 't, a Fellow of the Society has assured the public 

 that no proper record is kept of the living animals received in 

 the Society's Gardens. How such a statement can have been 

 conscientiously made in the face of the facts above stated, by 



• See P. Z. S. 1859, p. 212, where the first of these lists (for May of 

 that year) is given. 



t Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 4. vol. vii. p. 15. 



