RAY AND WILLUGHBY 103 



the children. Lady Willughby, the mother of Francis, 

 seems to have promoted in every way the plans of her 

 late son. For three or four years Ray was continued in 

 his office as tutor, and money was found for the publi- 

 cation of the first of the unfinished memoirs which 

 Willughby had left behind him. Then Lady Willughby 

 died, Ray gave up his tutorship, and the Willughby 

 connection seems to have been broken ofi" altogether, 

 except that Ray's pension was still paid.-* 



The indefatigable Ray, though now reduced to a 

 humble way of life, determined none the less to com- 

 plete by himself the vast enterprise to which he had set 

 his hand. Willughby had left behind him an imperfect 

 Ornithology, an imperfect Ichthyology, and many scat- 

 tered observations on insects. All of these Ray con- 

 trived to publish, having first completed them to the 

 best of his power. Nor did he neglect the share of the 

 work originally assigned to him, which was the descrip- 

 tion and arrangement of the plants, not only of Britain, 

 but of all countries hitherto investigated. 



WILLUGHBY'S ORNITHOLOGY 

 Ray first undertook to revise and complete the Orni- 

 thology, making it his main design to describe accurately 

 each species. " We ourselves," he claims, " did carefully 

 describe each bird from the view and inspection of it 

 lying before us." He finds fault with Willughby's 

 •excessive minuteness. "Now though I cannot but 

 -commend his diligence, yet I must confess that in 

 describing the colours of each single feather he some- 

 times seems to me to be too scrupulous and particular 

 . . . yet dared I not to omit or alter anything." ^ He 



1 Ray's Synopsis Slirpium (1690) is dedicated to the surviving son of Francis 

 Willughby. 

 " Preface. 



