Report of the Committee of Science and Correspondence to the Council. 



March 22nd, 1831. 



The Committee of Science and Correspondence, liaving taken into 

 consideration the request of the Council, that they should prepare a Re- 

 port upon the Animals most desirable to be introduced into this coun- 

 try for the purposes of utility or exhibition, beg leave to submit a List 

 of such Animals arranged under the heads of the respective countries 

 of which they are natives. The selection of these countries has been 

 made upon the principle of particularizing those in which the political, 

 commercial and scientific interests of England have established such 

 correspondents as are likely to exert themselves in forwarding the 

 views of the Council. 



The Animals most desirable for the purposes of utility may be se- 

 verally considered as they are likely to supply the objects of food, 

 clothing, medicine, or draft. 



The Committee recommend to the primary consideration of the 

 Council the first class of these animals, or those which are serviceable 

 for food, as being by nature most capable of domestication, most pro- 

 lific, and best able to bear the vicissitudes of climate. As their food 

 also is for the most part vegetable, they can be readily supplied with 

 it in their transmission to this country, and in confinement after- 

 wards. The Animals referred to under this character include the greater 

 ))art of the Ruminant or Hoofed order among the Mammalia, and the 

 Gallinaceous order among Birds; the former comprehending the va- 

 rious species of Deer, Antelopes, Oxen, Sheep, Goats, &c. ; and the 

 latter the numerous species of Pigeons, Turkeys, Guinea Fowls, Jun- 

 gle Fowls, Pheasants, Grouse, Partridges, Quails,the Struthious Birds, 

 Curassows, Penelopes, Sfc. And to these may be added a few species 

 from the Rodent order of the Mammalia, such as Hares, Rabbits, 

 Agoutis, Sfc. ; and a few from the Natatorial order of Birds, as Ducks, 

 Geese, Swans, S)~c. 



In thus particularly directing the attention of the Council to the 

 above-mentioned groups, the Committee are not equally sanguine of 

 success in the attempt to naturalize all. Climate in many instances 

 has an evident influence in advancing or retarding this object. Many 

 sj)ecies of Deer for example, the inhabitants for the most part of 

 nxjrthern latitudes or of high elevations in southern, breed freely in 

 this country, while the Antelopes and Musk Deer of Africa and India, 

 although closely allied to the Deer, have been found, with scarcely an 

 exception, incapable of enduring our colder temperature. On the 

 other hand the influence of climate appears in many cases either 

 not to have been felt or to have been counteracted ; the Pheasant 

 and Jungle Foivls of India, for instance, and the Guinea Fowls of 

 Africa, having been naturalized atnong us with equal success as the 



