John Ray was one of the most influential English naturalists in the seventeenth century. Born in Essex, Ray became interested in the natural world at the age of 23 following a bout of illness. He spent much of his life in Cambridge where he studied and taught a generation of naturalists, including Francis Willughby (1635-72), who would become a close friend and travel companion.

Ray spent much of his career attempting to form a universal classification system for plants and animals. While devising a system for plants (see RCIN 1055263), he died before he could revise the similar one he had created for animals. This work contains a catalogue of birds and fishes studied by Ray during his lifetime. It was published in 1713, eight years after his death.