112 RAY AND SOME OF HIS FELLOW- WORKERS 



I 



the cetaceans, were written by Eay, we have no distinct 

 indication how much of the book is Kay's, how much 

 Willughby's. Here, as in the Ornithology, we can only 

 guess whose are the thoughts and statements which we 

 have before us. 



The authors had visited all the best-known fishing 

 stations in England, Holland, Germany, France, and 

 Italy. ^ They were however unable to make themselves 

 personally acquainted with more than a small proportion 

 of the fishes known to Belon and Eondelet. Most of 

 the figures are copied ; ^ among such as are original a 

 few, e.g. that of the perch, are life-like. It cannot be 

 said that this is a very important contribution to 

 natural history. Much is taken from Eondelet. The 

 "cetacean fishes" are retained,^ and Lophius keeps its 

 old place among the cartilaginous fishes. It is something 

 that invertebrate aquatic animals are excluded, and that 

 classification by habitat is abandoned. Useful characters 

 are drawn from the texture of the fins and the number 

 of dorsal fins. 



We find a description of the uses of whalebone, which 

 reminds us how long certain fashions have lasted '- 

 "Laminis illis cornels, quae palata hujus piscis inna- 

 scuntur, fissis et perpolitis, politiores mulierculse sua 

 pectoralia communire, vestiumque fibras rigidiores et 

 rotundiores continere ; atque apparitores public! virgu- 

 larum ac fascium loco gestare solent, ut recte Bellonius."* 



^ In a letter to Dr. Tancred Robinson (Ray Correspondence, ed. of Ray Soc. , 

 p. 166) Ray laments that all his notes on the animals of High and Low 

 Germany had been lost. 



2 Belon, Rondelet, Salviani, Gesner and Marcgraf are among the authors 

 drawn upon. 



^ Supra, p. 49. 



■^P. 38. "Bellonius" is, of course, Belon. The whalebone occasionally 

 mentioned in mediaeval authors was white, and cut from walrus-teeth (Wright, 

 Homes of other Days, p. 119). 



