RAY AND WILLUGHBY. 43 



The first work of Willughby's which was published 

 under the editorial superintendence of Ray was a syste- 

 matic treatise on birds, 'wherein all the birds hitherto 

 known, being reduced into a method suitable to their 

 natures, are accurately described.'* This great work 

 was published in one volume, folio, in 1676; it was 

 translated by Ray into English in 1678; and a 

 French edition was published by Salerne in 1767. The 

 descriptive part of this well-known treatise is very good, 

 and it contains excellent accounts of the habits of the 

 birds described. Much cannot be said, however, for 

 the illustrations, so glowingly described in the title. They 

 are mostly poor copies of previously existing figures, and 

 according to Macgillivray an excellent authority there 

 are 'not ten figures in the work which bear an accurate 

 resemblance to their originals.' The classification adopted 

 in the work is a purely artificial one, as, indeed, it could 

 not have otherwise been ; and it would serve no particular 

 purpose to summarise it or discuss it here. It may be 

 added, however, that in spite of its deficiencies, it is his 

 * Ornithology ' which has mainly conduced to keep alive 

 the memory of Willughby as a naturalist. 



Ten years after the appearance of the ' Ornithology,' Ray 

 edited and published a second work of Willughby's, under 

 the title ' Historiae Piscium, Libri Quatuor,' London, folio, 

 1686. This famous treatise contained descriptions and 

 figures not only of most of the fishes which had been 

 recorded by previous ichthyologists, but also of numerous 



* ' Ornithologia, sive de Avibus, Libri tres : in quibus Aves omnes hactenus cognitae, 

 in Methodum naturis suis convenientum redactse, accurate describuntur. Descrip- 

 tiones iconibus elegantissimis et vivarum avium simillimis aeri incisis illustrantur. 

 Totum opus recognovit, digressit, supplevit Johannis Raius.' 



