120 MEMOIR OF 



he might be in botany, had very little merit as 

 an ornithologist, the whole of the system, and 

 also the names of the birds adopted throughout 

 his work, being the production of his friend 

 Willughby. This is frankly acknowledged by 

 Ray himself, and, therefore, must be true. We 

 are sorry to observe, that the credit of Willugliby's 

 system, and also of his names, is generally most 

 unjustly awarded to Kay, in works on natural 

 history in the present day."* The same writer 

 thus expresses his opinion, as to the influence of 

 Mr Willughby's Ornithology, in the researches 

 of succeeding naturalists in the same branch of 

 natural history, " The system of Willughby is, 

 without doubt, the basis on which the ornitho- 

 logical classification of Linnaeus is founded ; and 

 it is a curious fact, that many of Willughby's 

 genera, which were altered by the great Swede, 

 are now again introduced merely as restricted by 

 the former author*"} And of LinnaBus's Systema 

 Natures, Mr Wood observes, that " it has pro- 

 bably done more to advance ornithology, than any 

 other publication of a like nature." 



The reader will excuse it if the narration here 

 retrogrades for a short time to that point in 

 which it last left the personal history of the good 

 and faithful Ray, which is connected still farther 

 with the memoir of Mr Willughby. He con- 

 tinued to reside at Middleton Hall till the end of 

 the year 1676, when the old Lady Willughby, 



* Neville Wood's Ornithologist's Text-book, p. 3, 4. 

 t Ibid. p. 3. 



