206 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



From boyhood, his interest iu everything relating to plants 

 and animals had been intense. His taste was fostered by an 

 under-master at a private school, by Dr. S. R. Pittard (a 

 former Cni-ator), His Excellency Sir William Thomas Denison, 

 Tlie Honbl. A.W. Scott, of Ash Island and Lepidoptera fame, and 

 other scientific friends. 



In connection with the said under-master, the Rev. W. H. 

 H. Yarrington has favoured me with the following information : 



" I became acquainted with him in 1861 when he visited a German 

 scientific teacher at the Rev. J. Pendi-ill's School, Glebe 

 Point (where I was a teacher). This gentleman, Herr 

 Reitmann, and Mr. Ramsay were enthusiastic students of 

 Natural Science. . . . He seemed to know something 

 aboiTt every department. His enthusiasm was most intense, 

 and what was very remarkable was his wonderfully retentive 

 memory for the names, both generic and specific, especially 

 of ferns." 



Mr. Ramsay's entry into scientific life was probably at about 

 the age of twenty, when he became Treasurer of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of New South Wales, at its inception. Just 

 how long he so remained we do not know, but it may be till 

 the Society's demise in 1873, ^ when it practically became 

 linked up with the Linnean Society. 



Another notable event in the career of the future Curator 

 was his election as a Life Member of the Royal Society of New 

 South Wales, at its inception in 1865, appearing as such in 

 the list of members printed in the first volume of the Society's 

 " Ti-ansactions " for 1868 (1869). He had already communi- 

 cated a paper, be it noted, to the Royal Societ3''s forerunner, 

 the Philosophical Society of New South Wales — "On the 

 Oology of Australia, "2 read on 5th July, 1865, a paper that 

 appears to have escaped the eye of most bibliogi-aphers. His 

 election to this old Society took place 7th June, 1865. 



The months of August to November, 1866, inclusive, were 

 spent on the Richmond Rivei', no doubt occuyiied in zoological 

 researches. 



1 Dixson — Presidential Address — Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, xxix., 

 pt. i., 1904, p. 6. 



2 Kamsay— Trans, riiil. Soc. N.S. Wales, 1862-65 (1866), p. 309. 



