244 CHAPTER 19. 
whom, as the parent of zoological know-' 
ledge, he failed not to confult on all oc- 
cafions, but by no means implicitly to fol- 
low, in his fubtleti^s and obfcuritiec. 
On finifhing th^ " Synopfis of Quadru- 
peds/' Mr* Ray immediately drew up 
that of the Birds and Fijhes, This v/as an 
eafier taflc at this time, lince they are to be 
confidered as compends of his preceding 
labours with his friend, Mr. Willughby; 
although there were many things new in 
both, and that of the Fifhes was very 
greatly improved as to the arrangement and 
method. He informs us, that the addi- 
tions were, the Mexican birds, from Her- 
nandez ; fome defcriptions of new fpecies, 
out of NiEUHOFF j Martin's Birds and 
Fifhes of Greenland; Sibbald's Whales; 
Sloane's Jamaica Birds and Fifhes ; and 
fome from the Leyden Catalogue, by Dr. 
Robinson. 
In thefe branches of nature, Mr. Ray 
again appears as the parent of method. 
The accurate Br is son resrards Ray and 
Willughby, as the firft true fyftematic 
writers on birds, Thefe works were finiflied 
in 
