‘The following may be also specified, namely, the burrowing Snake from South Africa, _Uriechis microlepidotus_; a new genus of tree-snake, _Herpetoreas_; a new genus, _Barycephalus_, of Saurian, from an altitude in the Himalayas of fifteen thousand feet above the level of the sea; also two new species of freshwater Tortoise, the _Emys Livingstonii_, dedicated to its discoverer in Africa, and the _Emys Siamensis_. Among the additions to the class of Fishes has been acquired a new genus, _Hypsiptera_, of the Scomberoid family; with several new species, including one, _Centrolophus Britannicus_, belonging to this country. ‘The specimens of the Molluscous classes showing the entire animal, preserved in spirits, and stored in the basement room, are in good condition. The entire class of _Tunicata_ is so preserved; also the families or genera devoid of, or with rudimental, shells, in the other Molluscous classes. A small proportion of such “naked” Mollusca, and the soft parts of a few of the testaceous kinds, are represented by coloured wax models in the exhibited series of shells arranged in the Bird Gallery. ‘The whole of the exhibited collection is in an excellent state of preservation. The system or scale on which the genera, species, and local varieties of shells are exhibited, with their names and localities, gives to the ordinary visitor a power of comparing his own specimens, and, in most instances, of determining them, without the necessity of special application to the keeper or assistant in the department. The extent to which students and others avail themselves of this facility of comparison, and the value attached to it, show that the above principle and scale of exhibition of specimens are proper to be adopted in a National Museum for public use.’ In the year following the presentation of this Report, Professor OWEN made a more elaborate review, both of the condition and of the needs of the Zoological Department, from which I gather broadly, and by abridgement, the following striking results:— The number of _species_ of Mammals possessed by the British Museum was a little over two thousand, exemplified by about three thousand individual specimens. In the year 1830, the number of _specimens_ had been about one thousand three hundred and fifty; in 1850, it had risen to nearly two thousand. It follows that, within thirty-two years, the number of specimens in the Museum Collection had been somewhat more than doubled. But still the number of _species_ adequately illustrated was only about two thousand against three thousand five hundred species of Mammals which are known, named, and have been more or less adequately described, by zoologists.