REVIEWS 



OF 



ORNITHOLOGICAL WORKS. 



General Ornithology : all the Birds hitherto known being reduced into 

 a method suitable to their natures, and accurately described. By 

 Fhancis Willughby, Esq. Translated by John Ray, F.R.S. 

 Folio. 1G78. 



It seems almost incredible that an individual with 

 so short a life as Mr. Willughby had, and living, 

 moreover, when Ornithology was in so comparatively 

 backward a state, could collect so large a mass 

 of authentic information, so well arranged, as is 

 to be found in the volume before us. The 

 mystery is however unravelled by the following 

 remark of his biographer, Mr. Ray : — " He was from 

 his childhood addicted to study, and ever since he 

 came to the use of reason, so great a husband of his 

 time, as not willingly to lose or let slip unoccupied 

 the least fragment of it, detesting no vice more than 

 Idleness, which he looked upon as the Parent and 

 Nurse of almost all others. Nay, so, excessive was 

 he in the prosecution of his studies and other em- 

 ployments without any intermission or diversion, 

 that most of his friends were of opinion he did much 

 weaken his body, and impair his health, by his 



