The Zoologist— July, 1808. 1265 



Extracts from the Report of the Council of the Zoological Society, 



read April 29, 1868. 



The following extracts are inserted in the ' Zoologist,' to the 

 exclusion of some interesting and more original communications, with 

 a twofold purpose; first, to serve the Society by inducing my readers 

 to join so useful an institution, and secondly, to diffuse among my 

 more distant subscribers valuable information which will scarcely be 

 likely to reach them through any other channel. 



The number of visitors to the Gardens during 1867 has been 556,214 

 against 339,217 in 1857 and 93,546 in 1847 : this series comprises the 

 highest and lowest numbers on record, excepting only the years of our 

 international exhibitions, 1851 and 1862. - 



The loss sustained by the Society on the 6th of December, 1866, 

 by the accidental fire which took place in the giraffe-house, was 

 alluded to in last year's Report. The subsequent death of the old male 

 giraffe reduced the Society's stock of this important animal to one 

 adult female and a young male. Under these circumstances the 

 Council thought it expedient to devote the special sum of £400 to the 

 acquisition of a young female giraffe, which was imported last summer. 

 The animal thus acquired makes an excellent match to the young male 

 born on the 17th of March, 1867, in the Gardens, and both of them 

 are now in excellent health and condition. The Council believe that 

 this addition will enable them to keep up the breed of giraffes, of 

 which no less than seventeen have been bred in the Society's 

 Gardens. 



The Society now possess three giraffes ; a female born in the 

 Gardens on the 25th of April, 1853, a male born in the Gardens on the 

 17th of March, 1867, and the female above mentioned as purchased 

 on the 26th of July, 1867. 



Another important addition to the Society's living collection during 

 the past year was a young male walrus,- purchased in November, 1867, 

 at the cost of £204 10s. 6d. 



This animal was captured in Davis's Straits by Captain Richard 

 Wells, of the steam whaler ' Arctic,' belonging to Messrs. Alexander 

 Stephen and Co., on the 28th of August last, under the following 

 circumstances : — A herd of from two hundred to three hundred of these 

 animals was met with on the ice by the ' Arctic ' in lat. 69° N., long. 

 64° W. A boat's crew was landed on the ice, and the herd attacked 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. III. 2 I 



