PREFACE. 
4 
As is well known to most of the subscribers to the Zoological 
Record, the publication of the annual volume during the past 
sixteen years has been carried on by the Zoological Record Asso- 
ciation, with the assistance of grants from the Government Fund 
of tlio Royal Society, from the British Association, and for some 
years (1871-1881) from this Society. At the close of last year tlio 
Zoological Record Association, having been unsuccessful in ob- 
taining the renewal of some of these grants, and being unwilling to 
carry on the publication of the Record any longer, agreed to transfer 
the whole of their stock of the issued volumes of the Record to 
this Society upon certain terms, and upon the understanding 
that the Society would undertake its future publication. This 
the Council of the Society, being fully aware of the value of 
the Record to working zoologists, and being most unwilling 
that after the issue of twenty-two volumes it should come to 
an abrupt termination, have thought themselves fully justified in 
acceding to. 
To superintend the publication of the Zoological Record for 
the future, the Council have deemed it advisable to appoint a Select 
Committee of their own members, consisting for the present year 
of the following gentlemen : — Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., Dr. 
