THOMAS MUFFETT. 265 



which contains the descriptions and observations of wild 

 birds, was Muffett's work entirely. Muffett we know for 

 certain was an able and enthusiastic naturalist, his 

 Insectorum sive minimum Animalium Theatrum, which 

 was printed in 1634, was for long the leading work in that 

 branch of zoology, while Bennet, though also known as 

 an author,* confined his labours to matters strictly 

 medical. 



The fact that Muffett mentions more than one hundred 

 different kinds of British birds, and that he wrote at a 

 time wheu the printed matter relating to the ornithology 

 of this country was meagre in the extreme, makes his 

 book, quaint and instructive as it otherwise is, of very 

 considerable importance to the student of early British 

 ornithology. Most of our information on this subject 

 previous to the date of Muffett's work is derived from 

 the following authors : William Turner (1500-68), John 

 Caius (1510-73), and William Harrison (1534-93). Of 

 these Turner, whom Muffett quotes as " old Dr. Turner," 

 is by far the most important. In his Avium Prcecipuarum 

 . . . historia,'f published in 1544, is contained our 

 principal account of the bird-life of England in the 

 sixteenth century. Caius, in his Britanni de variorum 

 animalium (1570), described only seven British birds, 

 while Harrison's well-known Description of England 

 prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicle, and published in 1586, 

 contains little more than a list of names of the various 

 birds he assigns to that country. 



It was not till 1666 that the first printed list of British 

 birds appeared. This was contained in Christopher 

 Merrett's (1614-95) Pinax Berum, published in 1666, J 

 while the first genuine ornithology published in this 

 country, that of Francis Willughby (1635-75), did not 

 appear till 1676.§ 



* Bennet published a treatise on Phthisis in 1634, under the name of 

 Benedictus. 



t Translated and published with notes by A. H. Evans, Cambridge, 

 1903 ; c/. Vol. II., pp. 5-13. 



X cf. Vol. II., pp. 109-18 and 151-63. 



§ cf. Vol. II., p. 297. 



