SOME EARLY BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS. 113 

 graduated M.B. in 1636, and M.D. in 1643. He afterwards 

 settled in London, became a Fellow of the Royal College of 

 Physicians in 1651, and Gulstonian Lecturer in 1654. Through 

 the influence of his friend, Dr. WiUiam Harvey (1578-1657) 

 Merrett became the first librarian of the College. He resided 

 at Amen Corner, and is stated by Wood (Athen. Oxon.) to have 

 acquired a considerable practice. The bulk of the library 

 belonging to the College, and Merrett' s house were, however, 

 destroyed in the Great Fire, and Merrett lost his appointment. 

 He thereupon brought an action against the Royal College 

 of Physicians, in which he claimed that he was entitled to 

 his office for life. In this claim he failed, and was ultimately 

 in 1681 expelled from his Fellowship, nominally for non- 

 attendance. He died at his house in Hat ton Garden, August 

 19th, 1695, and was buried "12 feet deep in the church of 

 St. Andrew's, Holborne." (Wood.) Merrett was the author 

 of numerous other works, chiefly on medicine, and he also 

 contributed several papers on " vegetable physiology " to the 

 " Philosophical Transactions." His name is commemorated 

 in Botany. S. F. Gray having in his " Natural Arrangement 

 of British Plants " (1821), given the name of Merrettia to a 

 group of unicellular Algce. 



We here print Merrett' s list of birds verbatim, adding, with 

 the assistance of Mr. W. Warde Fowler, a few short explanatory 

 notes, which are placed within thick square brackets. The 

 pages of the original text are enclosed within ordinary square 



brackets. 



[Page 170] Aves Britannicce. 



Terrestres Carnivorce. 



Aquila, the Eagle, I. 10, tab. 1. 2. Aid. 110. G. 149. quandoq ; 

 hue migrat ex Hibernia ubi abundat. 



[" Migrates out of Ireland where it abounds." Merrett 

 has here, as elsewhere, availed himself freely of information 

 contained in Giraldus Cambrensis' (1146-1223) " Topography 

 of Ireland."* Giraldus in his ninth chapter, which deals with 



* First printed in 1577 (Anderson). 



