376 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



EAELY ORNITHOLOGISTS. 



By the Rev. H. A. Macpherson, M.A. 



The ninth edition of the * Encyclopaedia Britannica,' though 

 now somewhat out of date in scientific matters, contains never- 

 theless many articles on natural history which can be referred to 

 with advantage. Of the number, Prof. Ray Lankester's article 

 on Zoology is one of the most weighty. But there is a single 

 sentence in this admirable essay to which we have never been 

 able to subscribe, namely, that in which we are informed that 



*' the real dawn of zoology is connected with the name of 



an Englishman, Wotton " (End. Brit. vol. xxiv. p. 803). *' The 

 real dawn of zoology " is truly inseparable from the name of an 

 Englishman, but it is the name of William Turner, and not that 

 of honest Wotton which is linked with the foundation of zoolo- 

 gical science. Wotton was a book-maker, who made a digest of 

 the zoological knowledge of the classical writers, and published 

 the compendium under the title of De Differentiis Ani7}ialium. 

 This work was published at Paris, and did not appear until eight 

 years after Turner had published his history of the birds known 

 to Aristotle and Pliny. When it did appear, it failed to add 

 a single new fact to the science which it was supposed to further, 

 for Wotton candidly disclaims any share of original work. He 

 was a compiler, like Goldsmith, and he really deserves no more 

 credit than the author of ' Animated Nature.' The modern 

 science of zoology owes its first conception to the genius of a 

 galaxy of talents, of which Turner, Belon, Gesner, and Aldro- 

 vandi were the brightest ornaments, though Rondelet and Sal- 

 viani accomplished much for ichthyology. If we limit our atten- 

 tion to the science of ornithology, we find that these men knew 

 far more about the anatomy of birds than the majority of 

 twentieth century naturalists. Not only did they observe the 

 habits of wild birds, study their migrations, examine their crops 



