The first zoological work

awakening in our own country. ever printed in England is the Theatre of Insects' by Moufet,* of date 1634, a translation of which into the vernacular was published twenty-five years later by Edward Topsel. We append an accurate copy of one of the woodcuts of this curious old work, the one selected representing the Cicada.

The first work which treated specially of the native animals and plants of Britain is the 'Pinax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum' of Christopher Merret, published in 1667. This, in addition to animals and plants, embraced fossils also; but it is nothing more than a sort of catalogue or enumeration of the animals and plants known

*'Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum, olim ab Edoardo Wottono, Conrado Gesnero, Thomaque Pennio inchoatum: tandem Tho. Moufeti Londinâtis, operâ sumptibusque maximis concinnatum, auctum, perfectum: et ad vivum expressis iconibus illustratum. Londini ex officinâ typographicâ Thom. Cotes,' 1634.

to the writer. Indeed, both of these early works are exceedingly rude and imperfect productions, and have no value at the present time. On the other hand, the close of the seventeenth century was rendered memorable in the history of zoology through the labours of several British naturalists, and notably of John Ray and Francis Willughby. Ray may therefore be appropriately selected as the chief representative of the natural sciences in Britain during the pre-Linnean period.