148 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



they falsely affirm) Avill not fix, dry, or grow hard, but 

 always remains in an oily consistence. Upon these and 

 other reasons the Sorbonists have ranked the Macreuse 

 in the classis of fishes. For the rest, I refer you to my 

 paper from Paris, and impatiently wait for your judg- 

 ment, for which I have a particular esteem. 



London, August 1, — 84. 



Mr. Ray to Dr. Robinson. 



Sir, — I received the box with the cases of the male 

 and female Macreuse you were pleased to procure and 

 send me, for which I hold myself very much obliged to 

 you. 



I had no sooner opened the box, but instantly I found 

 that the Macreuse was no stranger to me, though un- 

 known by that name. I was very much pleased to be so 

 suddenly rid of my long continued scruples about it, and 

 not a little surprised, when I found it to be another kind 

 of bird than I imagined. A particular description of the 

 cock you may find in Mr. WHlughby's ' Ornithology,^ 

 p. 366, of the English edition, among the sea-ducks, to 

 which kind this bird belongs, and not to the divers, or 

 douckers {Mergi or Colymbi), as I falsely fancied to myself. 



Mr. Graindorge's description, which you sent me a 

 breviat of, I find, upon attent reading and comparing it 

 with the case of the bird, and mine own description, to 

 be very faithful, and sufficient to lead into the knowledge- 

 of it one that had not been prepossessed with a strong 

 opinion that it was of another kind, as I have already 

 intimated myself to have been. Had there been but one 

 word added, that it was of the duck-kind, I should then 

 presently have apprehended what bird it was; and yet 

 there was enough in the description (had I not been 

 blinded with prejudice, and so lightly passed it over, and 

 not heeded it) to determine its genus, at least, and to ex- 



