RAY. 173 



less, as the miteater. Other animals of this kind 

 are furnished with wings, and have a short muzzle, 

 as the bats ; while some are without wings, as the 

 sloth. Tortoisesy lizards, and serpents, bring up 

 the rear. 



After this work had been published, he completed 

 a Synopsis of Birds and Fishes, which was sent to 

 Dr Robinson to be printed ; but the booksellers who 

 had the copyright neglected it, so that it did not 

 appear until after the author's death, when it was 

 enlarged and edited by Derham in 1713. 



Having finished these synopses, Mr Ray considered 

 his labours at an end, — a consummation which gave 

 him the more joy, because he had for several years 

 suffered severely in his health. But soon after, he 

 was induced to add to an English translation of 

 Rauwolf's Travels '^ three Catalogues of such trees, 

 shrubs, and herbs, as grow in the Levant." His 

 next publication was the Catologus Stirpium in Ex- 

 teris Regionibus Observatarum, consisting of species 

 not growing spontaneously, or at least very rarely 

 seen, in Britain. Having taken occasion in this 

 work to criticize the method of Rivinus, this cir- 

 cumstance gave rise to some literary altercation, the 

 result of which was a more careful revisal of his 

 system, and a republication of his Methodus Plant- 

 arum Nova. At this period he was so tormented by a 

 continual diarrhoea and painful ulcers in his legs, 

 which kept him sleepless for whole nights, that he 

 could not walk into the fields, much less visit the 

 botanic gardens, where he might have found mate- 

 rials for his work. 



His booksellers being unwilling to incur the pecu- 

 niary hazard attending this work, it was transmit- 



