3 
of accessions to and deaths in the Society’s Menagerie, that 
they are quite satisfied with the manner in which they are 
kept. 
I am, Sir, 
Your obedient Servant, 
P. L. SCLATER, 
Secretary. 
Dr. J. E. Gray. 
This reply carefully avoids the two grounds of my com- 
laint :— 
1. That the Publication Committee refused to read at a 
Scientific Meeting a Paper that was a reply to observations 
made at a former meeting, which the Secretary had printed 
as being so made. 
2. The Council’s approval of the manuscript “ Register of 
Accessions and Deaths” is no proof that the Secretary’s 
account of the revised “ Annual List” printed in the ‘ Pro- 
ceedings’ agrees with the Secretary’s account of it which I am 
aecused of having falsely described. 
Observations on the Record of Accessions to the Gardens of the 
Zoological Society. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &e. 
[Sent on the 21st of February, returned on the 8th of March, 1871.] 
Ar the meeting of the Zoological Society on January 17th, 
1871, the Secretary made some remarks on the observations 
which I had made respecting the registers of the Society not 
affording me the information which I required respecting the 
habitats of the specimens in the Gardens. 
Mz. Sclater stated (according to the abstract of his commu- 
nication published in the ‘Annals’ for Feb. 187 1, p. 162) that 
I have “assured the public” that no proper record is kept of 
the animals received into the Society’s Gardens. He says 
that there exists a register of accessions and another of deaths, 
and that the register of accessions has been carefully revised 
every month or year, and printed in the ‘ Proceedings,’ and a 
complete list of vertebrate animals is contained in the list of 
these animals which is sold at the gardens. I am perfectly 
aware of all this; but I have not found that they afford me 
the information I want, even when I asked for it from the 
keepers, not only on account of their imperfection, but also 
because there is no means of identifying the animal with the 
list of accessions arranged according to the dates when the 
animals were received. 
