Anniversary Meeting of the Zoological Club. 211 
new to science, were shortly afterwards noticed by me in the 
Zoological Journal: and a detailed description of the whole col- 
lection, accompanied with some anatomical and phy siological 
notices by the naturalists of the expedition, together =n 
figures of the new or rarer species, is in preparation. And 
here I cannot pass over a fact which affords an auspicious 
omen to the well-wishers of zoology. The work which will 
include the natural history of this expedition is coming out 
under the immediate patronage of our government, who phave 
a 
advanced a liberal sum for defraying the expense of the illus- 
trative plates. The same liberality has been evinced in the 
case of the work lately published by Dr. Richardson, to which 
I have already drawn your attention. These are tidings which 
cannot fail to interest us. The expense of suitable engravings 
for such works is well known to be so great as to deter any 
author or publisher from venturing on what must prove to 
him a decided sacrifice ; and it is only by its being met by the 
liberality of government, or of some great institution, that an 
object so Feet to the interests of zoology, as faithful re- 
presentations of the subjects described, can be attained. The 
same munificence of spirit may be niticed in the Directors of 
the East India Company. This patronage alone has enabled 
the scientific world to profit by such works as Dr. Horsfield 
has produced on the zoology of Java. 
I have here also to announce the arrival, in this country, 
of a very valuable collection of birds, formed in the neighbour- 
hood of the Straits of Magellan, by our gallant ariel accom- 
plished friend Captain Phillip Parker King. I have had the 
pleasure of exhibiting to you, at some of our former meetings, 
the very interesting collection which he sent to this country, 
as the results of his first voyage to those Straits, and which 
ras described in the Zoological Journal, by extracts from his 
letters. The present collection, ee 8 was obligingly en- 
trusted to me by the Admiralty for description, contains 
many fine specimens of the rarer species described in those 
extracts, together with many additional novelties. I wait only 
for the return of Captain King to bring out an account of this 
truly valuable collection. ‘This event, we have every reason 
to hope, will not be far distant ; and the intervening delay will 
be fully compensated by the additional value conferred on his 
acquisitions by the observations which he will be enabled to 
supply in person. 
Irom others of the foreign collections which have been for- 
warded to this country, much important information has been 
acquired. The noble Sumatran collection, left by Sir Stam- 
ford Raffles as a monument of his scientific zeal and acumen, 
