8 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Entomological Society of New South Wales and of this Society; 

 and, as the only otticial representative of Zoology in this State 

 in those early days, he was a most useful Member. As a Mem- 

 ber of Council, a contributor of numerous papers, and as an ex- 

 hibitor of zoological and other specimens of interest, he rendered 

 most important aid in support of the Society, and in furthering 

 its interests during the critical early stages of its history. He is 

 well represented in the first fourteen volumes of the Pi'oceedings 

 (1875-1889). In 1892, shortly before his retirement from the 

 Australian Museum on account of ill health, he gave up his 

 membership, and ceased to take an active part in the studies in 

 which he had taken an enthusiastic interest for so long. He 

 was well acquainted with the fauna from his boyhood, especially 

 with the birds. His early knowledge of it covered a very inter- 

 esting pei'iod, when it had not been anything like so seriously 

 interfered with by settlement as it unfortunately is now. His 

 contributions to knowledge, in the branches in which he was 

 particularly interested, are numerous and valuable, because he 

 belonged to the era when local workers, w4th personal knowledge 

 of the fauna, were beginning to study it. A record of his 

 collecting experiences and of his knowledge of the gradual growth 

 of Zoological Science, from very small beginnings, in this State, 

 would be most valuable and interesting. It is to be hoped, that 

 during the leisure of the later period of his life, he may have 

 been moved to record his reminiscences from this point of view. 

 It is not necessary for me to anticipate the historian of the Aus- 

 tralian Museum by attempting to give a more detailed account 

 of Dr. Ramsay's life and work. 



In July last, in consequence of the threatened shortage of 

 paper, the CWncil decided to suspend, for the present, the pub- 

 lication of the Monthly Abstract of Proceedings, after the issue 

 of No. 33 9 for the month named. This will result in the saving 

 of the equivalent of 10,800 pages for the Session — a matter of 

 some importance just now. The first of the series made its 

 appearance in June, 1882, three months before the Garden 

 Palace Fire; and the issue had continued uninterruptedly for just 



