134 ARTHUR E. SHIPLEY 



to the great expectations that he himself had 

 formed of them. Ray's system at any rate 

 obtained in England until the latter half of 

 the eighteenth century, when it was gradu- 

 ally replaced by the Linnaean method of 

 classification. 



But Ray has other claims on our regard. 

 He and Francis Willughby, both of Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, attacked a similar prob- 

 lem in the animal kingdom. Willughby was 

 the only son of wealthy and titled parents, 

 whilst Ray was the son of a village blacksmith. 

 But the older Universities are great levellers, 

 and Ray succeeded in infusing his fellow stu- 

 dent at Cambridge with his own genuine love 

 for natural history. With Willughby he 

 started out on his methodical investigations of 

 animals and plants in all the accessible parts of 

 the world. Willughby died young and be- 

 queathed a small benefaction and his manu- 

 scripts to his older friend. After his death 

 Ray undertook to revise and complete his 

 *' Ornithology" and therein paid great attention 

 to the internal anatomy and to the habits and 

 to the eggs of most of the birds he described. 



