BY DR. DERHAM. 



15 



tonshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Ehntshire, 

 Denbighshire, Carnarvonshire, Anglesea, Merionethshire, 

 Montgomeryshire, Cardiganshire, Pembrokeshire, Car- 

 marthenshire, Glamorganshire, Monmouthshire, Glouces- 

 tershire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, Cornv\^all, Dorset- 

 shire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire, and returned in July 

 foUovs^ing. 



During all this period, Mr. Ray continued fellow of 

 Trinity College, till the beginning of the Bartholomew 

 Act,* which, requiring a subscription against the so- 



tliem. There are frequently also good accounts of dissections of various 

 birds. Cuvier says that aU subsequent writers have followed Willughby, 

 and that his observations are wonderfully correct. The English work con- 

 cludes with a treatise on Talconry. Although Ray seems to have taken 

 great trouble with the plates, they are too inaccurate to be of use at present. 

 But the letterpress is a perennial source of correct observation on the habits 

 and structure of birds. In 1686 Ray edited a second work on the same 

 plan, embracing the fishes. This was pubhshed at London, in folio, with the 

 title ' Historise Piscium Libri Quatuor.' The descriptions in this work are 

 good, and Cuvier states that it contained many observations on the Medi- 

 terranean fishes that couLd not be found elsewhere. In aU his descriptions 

 Willughby was very careful in distinguishing specific characters ; and in this 

 way he corrected many of the errors of preceding writers. 



WiUughby and Ray were early PeUows of the Royal Society of London, 

 and Willughby contributed some papers to the 'Philosophical Transactions' 

 before his death. Two of these were pubhshed in the 'Transactions' for 

 1671 ; one of them ' On a kind of Wasp called Ichneumons,' and another 

 ' On the Hatching of a kind of Bee lodged in old v.dUows.' Ray afterwards 

 contributed many papers on insects, of which the substance had been pre- 

 pared from Willughby' s manuscripts. 



Ray, in the preface to the ' Ornithologia,' has left behind him a beau- 

 tiful memorial of the estimation in which he held his friend in the summary 

 he there gives of liis character. He seems to have added to habits of exces- 

 sive industry and a rare philosophical genius, every virtue. It is no small 

 praise to say he was worthy of his master and his friend. The influence of 

 WOlughby undoubtedly, under the direction of Ray, has been very great in 

 every department of zoology ; and had he lived to have laboured more, and 

 to have developed the great principles of classification in zoology, which Ray 

 did in botany, then might it have been said that the modern foundation 

 of both sciences was laid at the same period in Great Britain. 



* Among some miscellaneous observations of Mr. Ray's one is as follows : 

 " September the 18th, 1662. The names of such fellows of CoUeges in 

 the IJniversity of Cambridge, as were deprived for not subscribing according 

 to the new Act for Uniformity, 1661 : St. John's CoUege, Mr. Wood and 

 Mr. Tuckney; Trinity CoUege, Mr. Wray; Emanuel College, Mr. lUing- 

 worth, Mr. Hulse, and Mr. Brinsley ; Pembroke Hall, Mr. Chiford and Mr. 

 Green ; Bemiett CoUege, Mr. Chapman ; Jesus CoUege, Mr. Huffe ; Magdalen 

 CoUege, Mr. HiU and Mr. More ; King's CoUege, Mr. Buncombe ; besides 

 these, Dr. DiUingham, master of Emanuel CoUege." — G. S. 



