120 
MEMOIR OF 
he might be in botany, had very little merit as 
an ornithologist, the whole of the system, and 
also the names of the birds adopted throughout 
his work, being the production of his friend 
Willughby. This is frankly acknowledged by 
Ray himself, and, therefore, must be true. We 
are sorry to observe, that the credit of Willughby’s 
system, and also of his names, is generally most 
unjustly awarded to Ray, in works on natural 
history in the present day.”* The same writer 
thus expresses his opinion, as to the influence of 
Mr Willughby’s Ornithology, in the researches 
of succeeding naturalists in the same branch of 
natural history, — “The system of Willughby is, 
without doubt, the basis on which the ornitho- 
logical classification of Linnaeus is founded ; and 
it is a curious fact, that many of Willughby’s 
genera, which were altered by the great Swede, 
are now again introduced merely as restricted by 
the former author.’’’}' And of Linnaeus’s Syslema 
Natures, Mr Wood observes, that il it has pro- 
bably done more to advance ornithology, than any 
other publication of a like nature.” 
The reader will excuse it if the narration here 
retrogrades for a short time to that point in 
which it last left the personal history of the good 
and faithful Ray, which is connected still farther 
with the memoir of Mr Willughby. He con- 
tinued to reside at Middleton Hall till the end of 
the year 1676, when the old Lady Willughby, 
* Neville Wood’s Ornithologist’s Text-book, p. 3, 4. 
t Ibid. p. 3. 
