The Zoologist — August, 1869. 1781 



The cost inciivred upon this expedition was considerable, having 

 amounted in 1868 altogether to £507 8s. lit/., besides £50 devoted to 

 the same object in 1867, and il cannot be said that the value of the 

 animals obtained equalled the expenditure. At the same time the 

 expedition cannot be said to have turned out altogether a failure, 

 since a specimen of the much-wished-for sea-lion was successfully 

 brought home, and is still thriving in the Society's Menagerie. It is 

 also right to stale that the Council have every reason to be satisfied 

 with Lecomte's conduct during this difficult and dangerous expe- 

 dition, although the results obtained were not altogether so satis- 

 factory as could have been wished. 



A second item of special expenditure was likewise incurred by the 

 Council last year in connexion with the Abyssinian Expedition. It 

 appearing that the government had made no arrangement to attach to 

 the exhibition any competent observer in the important branch of 

 science to the promotion of which this Society is devoted, the Council 

 were induced to address a memorial to the Secretary of State for India 

 upon the subject. They were so far successful in their efforts as to 

 induce the government to agree to pay the necessary expenses of a 

 zoological collector, leaving the appointment in the hands of the 

 Council. The Council had at first selected for this post an officer of 

 the Indian Army, already well-known for his investigations into the 

 Natural History of that country. This gentleman having been unfor- 

 tunately incapacitated from joining the expedition by a serious attack 

 of illness, the Council nominated in his place Mr. William Jesse, who 

 had had considerable experience in zoological collecting in South 

 America. Although much delay was caused by this change, Mr. Jesse 

 managed to reach Abyssinia in February, 1868, and after the termi- 

 nation of the expedition made a journey into the Bogos country, 

 whence he finally returned to England in August last. 



Mr. Jesse's collections, as will be seen by his Report, which will be 

 printed in the Society's 'Proceedings,' erobrace about 1250 zoo- 

 logical specimens. The largest series obtained was that of the class 

 of birds, in working out which the Society have obtained the services 

 of Dr. O. Finsch, of Bremen, one of the best living authorities on 

 African Ornithology. Dr. Finsch's completed memoir upon the birds 

 collected by Mr. Jesse has lately been received, and will be read at 

 one of the approaching Scientific meetings. 



In anticipation of Mr. Jesse being likely to acquire some valuable 

 living specimens for the Menagerie, the Council placed the sura of 



