INTRODUCTION. xxill 



with the College with regard to his appointment, 

 which was considered by that body to have 

 terminated when the Library was destroyed by 

 the great fire, he was defeated, and in 1681 

 expelled from his fellowship. He died in 

 London in 1695. ("Diet, of Nat. Biog.") 

 Merrett was the author of several works on 

 various subjects, as well as of the Pinax, and 

 a translation of the " Art of Glass " referred to 

 further on. His Pinax Rerum Naturaliuni 

 Britannicarum, said to have been brought out in 

 1666, contained the earliest list of British Birds 

 ever published, but it is little more than a bare 

 list. Copies bearing the date of 1666 are 

 very rare, and it is believed the edition was 

 burned in a fire at the publishers ; but Pro- 

 fessor Newton (" Diet, of Birds," Introduction, 

 p. xviii.) says that in 1667 there were two 

 issues of a reprint ; one, nominally a second 

 edition, only differs from the others in having 

 a new title-page, an example doubtless of what 

 Wilkin severely condemns as " that contemptible 

 form of lying under which publishers have 

 endeavoured to persuade the public of the 

 rapidity of their sales." Merrett was con- 

 templating a new and improved edition of his 

 work when, as Wilkin happily puts it, "in an 

 auspicious moment he sought the assistance of 



