y.

Fellows have personal admission to the Gardens, with two companions,
daily, and receive orders, to be signed by them, admitting two persons
on each Saturday and Sunday in the year. They are also entitled to
twenty free tickets of admission. Sundays are set apart specially for
fellows and their friends, the general public not being admitted.

The society has business and scientific meetings--the latter
monthly--and these are very largely attended and of the most interesting
character. New and remarkable subjects of zoology are exhibited, papers
and communications on animal physiology and zoology are read, and
animated discussions carried on. An abstract of the proceedings is
regularly forwarded to the scientific journals and newspapers. The
society also publishes a large variety of zoological matter, which is
furnished to fellows at one-fourth less than the price to strangers.
Every addition to the collection of the society has its picture taken
upon its entrance, and very handsome colored plates of those which are
rare or curious are inserted in these publications. The sales from this
source realized last year over thirty-seven hundred dollars.

In 1871 the income of the society was $123,101, of which $69,000 were
from admissions to the Gardens, $9507 from Garden sales and rent of
refreshment-rooms, $3750 from the society's publications, and $39,415
from dues of fellows and annual subscribers. The expenses for the same
year were $106,840, the principal items being--salaries, wages and
pensions, $21,790; cost and carriage of animals, $10,560; provisions,
$20,430; menagerie expenses, $10,480; Garden expenses, $3465. The annual
income has so much exceeded the expenses during the last ten years that
the society has been able to devote over two hundred and thirty thousand
dollars of such surplus to the permanent embellishment of its Gardens,
and still retain some fifty thousand dollars as a reserve fund.

In the collection of the society are 590 quadrupeds, 1227 birds and 255
reptiles--altogether 2072. The quantity and various kinds of food--the
knowledge of the tastes and necessities of the animals--the temperature,
ventilation, habitations and so on of such a large assortment of
different species--necessitate the employment of trained and skillful
servants and scientific officers. It has been seen that the provisions
and menagerie expenses alone exceed $30,000, and it must be remembered
that the most difficult part,