Abstract
IT was a happy thought to found an association under the name of Francis Willughby, having for its object the reprinting of scarce ornithological works, thus keeping the name of the writer of “Ornithologias Libri Tres” in remembrance and doing a service to the working ornithologist. It is nearly nine years over two centuries since Willughby died (July 3, 1672). About seven years younger than John Ray, he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, under Ray; but though at first the pupil, he was soon the friend and afterwards the patron of our great English botanist. Belonging to a family of wealth and influence, Willughby soon married (1668), and settled at Middleton Hall, Warwickshire. How hard he must have worked the materials for his great work left at the time of his untimely death amply prove. His second son (the elder died) was created a peer by Queen Anne (Viscount Middleton). An annuity was left to Ray, who edited “The Ornithology,” which was printed in London (1676) at the expense of Willughby's widow. Willughby has been called the “father of systematic zoology in this country.” The new Willughby Society seems determined to follow in his footsteps.
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The Willughby Society 1 . Nature 24, 57 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/024057a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/024057a0