SOME EARLY BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS. 299 



Ray's final contribution to ornithology was the " Synopsis 

 Methodica Avium," which was completed in 1694, but 

 not published till after his death in 1713. "In this 

 synopsis Mr. Ray added many species of birds and fishes 

 which were omitted in Mr. Willughby's histories of 

 them," and by way of a supplement added a short 

 catalogue with figures of " Avium Maderaspatanarum," 

 or " Indian Birds about Fort St. George," compiled by 

 James Petiver (1663-1718), and of interest as being " the 

 first attempt to catalogue the Birds of any part of the 

 British possessions in India " (c/. Newton, Diet, of Birds, 

 Introduction, p. 7). 



Ray's health now began to fail, and in 1704 he passed 

 away at Black Notley " in a house of his own building " 

 called " Dewlands " (destroyed by fire in 1900). He lies 

 buried in the churchyard of his native parish, where his 

 sadly neglected grave requires prompt attention, if the 

 several inscriptions that his monument bears are to remain 

 decipherable. 



Of Ray's influence on natural history it is impossible 

 to say too much. His works on zoology, in the words of 

 Cuvier, " may be considered as the foundation of modern 

 zoology," and by Haller he was termed "the greatest 

 botanist in the memory of man." 



Of the short but busy life of Francis Willughby it is 

 necessary to say but little. He was born in 1635, the 

 only son of Sir Francis Willughby, Knt., of Middleton Hall, 

 Warwickshire. At the age of seventeen he became a 

 fellow Commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge, and there 

 formed the acquaintance of John Ray, with whose labours 

 in natural history his name will ever be associated. It 

 has been generally asserted that Willughby was Ray's 

 pupil at the University, but what little evidence exists 

 on the matter is rather against this supposition. In 1655 

 Willughby took his degree as B.A., and proceeded M.A. 

 in 1659. That he had early begun to assist Ray in his 

 work is evident from the allusions in the latter's 

 " Catalogus Plantarum Circa Cantabrigiam," which was 



