276 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY, 



Mr. Ray to Dr. Robinson. 



B.N., Aprilll, — 94. 



Sir, — There are some things new in my ' Synops. Av. 

 et Piscium.' By new, I mean such as were not com- 

 prehended in Mr. Wilhighby's works. Those are — 

 Hernandez's Mexican Birds. 2. Some names and de- 

 scriptions of Birds out of Nieuhoff. 3. Frid. Marten's 

 Spitzberg Birds and Fishes. 4. Sir Robert Sibbald's 

 Whales. 5. Dr. Sloane's Jamaica Birds and Fishes. 

 6. Your Birds and Fishes taken out of the Ley den Cata- 

 logue. And lastly, some few things out of Du Tertre. 

 Those Bu-ds of Hernandez being shortly described, and 

 no figures added, are very puzzling and confounding : a 

 little to illustrate them, and make them easier to be com- 

 pared with the descriptions of other authors, I have 

 reduced them to a kind of method according to their 

 bigness. 



2. I will not confidently affirm that there are in this 

 island any topical plants so peculiar to one place, or spot 

 of ground, as not to be found in any other. Some species, 

 which for a long time I thought to be such, I afterward 

 found myself mistaken in ; for example, Eryngium vulgare 

 >S. camjjesfre \Fjrijngium campestre, Linn.], Mhamnus 

 secundus Clmii \Hij)pop1iae rkamnoides, Linn.], and Pis2im 

 maritimiim Aldebrngense [Lathgrus maritimus, Big.], to 

 which I might add the Box-tree : yet I am verily per- 

 suaded there are some such ; as to name no more, 

 PericlgmenumparvumPrutenicum Clus. \Corniis sanguinea, 

 Linn.], and Calceolus Marice \Cgpri2')ediiim Calceolm, 

 Linn.] But that there are some peculiar to a county, 

 and that few counties of any extent want such, is my pre- 

 sent opinion and assertion. However, it is enough for 

 my purpose, and I pretend to no more, than that there are 

 some, for aught hath yet been discovered peculiar to each 

 county. Nay, in these Catalogues [added to Camden's 

 Brit.] I pretend not to so much, but have entitled them 



