"8. I observed these mushromes even then, when they abounded with milk (not to be endured upon our tongues) to be exceeding full of fly-maggots; and the youngest and tenderest of them were very much eaten by the small grey naked snail.
"You can tell me what author describes this mushrome, and what he titles it.
"I have revised the History of Spiders, and added this summer's notes. Also I have likewise brought into the same method the land and fresh water snails, having this year added many species found in these northern lakes. And by way of Appendix, I have describ'd all the shell-stones that I have anywhere found in England, having purposely viewed some places in Yorkshire where there are plenty. The tables of both I purpose to send you. I am not so throughly stocked with sea-shells as I wish and endeavour. I aim not at exoticks, but those of our own shores. Concerning St Cuthbert's Beads, I find 3 species of them in Craven: and this makes it plain, that they have not been the back-bone of any creature, because I find of them ramous and branched like trees.
"York, October 12, 1672."
Soon after Mr Willughby's death, Mr Ray lost another of his best friends, Bishop Wilkins, who died on the 19th November 1672. Being thus deprived of some of those persons whose intercourse had afforded him the purest pleasure, he began to think of consoling himself by marriage; having formed an attachment to a young woman recommended by her personal and mental accomplishments. She was the daughter of Mr John Oakeley of Launton, in Oxfordshire. They were married in Middleton Church, on the 5th June 1673. This lady gave him important assistance in educating Mr Willughby's children; and afterwards, by her unremitting attentions and constant affection, contributed to enliven his mind, when he was labouring under the pressure of protracted disease.
In the year just named, he published an account of the observations which he had made in his travels on the Continent, to which was appended a catalogue of plants observed in foreign countries, and also, about the same time, his Collection of Unusual or Local English Words, adding to it a catalogue of English birds and fishes, and an account of the way of smelting and refining metals and minerals. Mr Oldenburgh, the secretary of the Royal Society, having solicited him by numerous letters to communicate any discoveries which he might have made, he sent several papers, some of which were printed in the Philosophical Transactions, as well as a discourse concerning seeds and the specific differences of plants, which was read to the members.
In 1674 and the following year, he was busily engaged in the task of preparing for the press Mr Willughby's observations on birds. These notices had been committed to paper without any method, and left in a very imperfect state, so that the trouble of revising and digesting was of no light kind. Without at all detracting from the merits of the author, whose labours, according to Dr Derham, were such, "that he allowed himself little or no time for those recreations and diversions which men of his estate and degree are apt to spend too much of their time in, but prosecuted his design with as great application, as if he had been to get his bread thereby," it may fairly be presumed, and indeed has been generally admitted, that the greater part of his works belong in fact to Mr Ray, who, however, claimed no merit in the performance. The book was published in 1676, in Latin, with engravings, which, in the titlepage, are designated as icones elegantissimi et vivarum avium simillimi, although few who inspect them will be disposed to concur in the opinion now stated. It was afterwards translated into English by his affectionate editor, and put forth with large additions in the year 1678. Derham apologizes for the inferior execution of the plates, which were done at the charge of the author's widow. "Considering," says the Doctor, "how well the engravers were paid for their labour, it is great pity they had not had some able person in London to have supervised them, that they might have given better likenesses to the birds than what most of them have. But this is what Mr Ray could only complain of, but not help, by reason of his being in Warwickshire, at a distance from London, where every thing was transacted by letters,—a method which could never afford sufficient directions in a matter of that nature." The descriptions, however, are in general excellent, regard being had to the state of science at the time when they were written. Some of them, indeed, are very imperfect, and there is, besides, a deficiency of method, which becomes more striking when they are compared with those of Temminck or Selby, or any other of our best modern ornithologists.
In this important work birds are divided into Terrestrial and Aquatic. The former are disposed in the following order:—
In the first place, land-birds are either furnished with hooked-bill and claws, or have these organs nearly straight.
Those with hooked-bill are carnivorous and predatory or frugivorous. The former are either diurnal, that is, hunt by day, or nocturnal, seeking their food by night.