THE 
mi |widg ni f kitm 
REPORT. 
-^HE Council of the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of Vic- 
^ toria has the honor to submit its Twenty-first Annual Report to the 
Subscribers. 
During the past year the Society has become an incorporated body, 
having successfully carried a bill through Parliament during the last 
session for that purpose; this places the Society on a much more secure 
and satisfactory footing, as its by-laws can now be enforced, and the Act 
empowers the Society to borrow a sum of money on the security of its in¬ 
come not exceeding £10,000, for the improvement of the Gardens. 
In June last the Assistant Director, Mr. Dudley Le Souef, was des¬ 
patched to Singapore and the Malay States, principally for the purpose 
of procuring a Rhinoceros and a pair of Tapirs for the Zoological col¬ 
lection ; he procured both, though at considerable expense, as the 
demand for these valuable animals for the Zoological Gardens of Europe 
is very great, and the prices asked and obtained by the native trappers 
are high in consequence. 
The first Tapir, a very fine animal, reached Melbourne in September 
last by the S. S. Iolani , but it refused food and began to pine, and in 
