THE COMPLETE ANGLER 99 



many sorts of flies as there be of fruits : I will name you 

 but some of them ; as the dun-fly, the stone-fly, the red- 

 fly, the moor-fly, the tawny-fly, the shell-fly, the cloudy 

 or blackish fly, the flag-fly, the vine-fly : there be of flies, 

 caterpillars, and canker-flies, and bear-flies ; and indeed 

 too many either for me to name, or for you to remember. 

 And their breeding is so various and wonderful, that I 

 might easily amaze myself, and tire you in a relation of 

 them. 



And, yet, I will exercise your promised patience by 

 saying a little of the caterpillar, or the palmer-fly or 

 worm ; that by them you may guess what a work it were, 

 in a discourse, but to run over those very many flies, 

 worms, and little living creatures, with which the sun and 

 summer adorn and beautify the river-banks and meadows, 

 both for the recreation and contemplation of us anglers ; 

 pleasures which, I think, I myself enjoy more than any 

 other man that is not of my profession. 



Pliny holds an opinion, that many have their birth or 

 being from a dew that in the spring falls upon the leaves 

 of trees ; and that some kinds of them are from a dew 

 left upon herbs or flowers ; and others, from a dew left 

 upon coleworts or cabbages : all which kinds of dew being 

 thickened and condensed, are by the sun's generative 

 heat most of them hatched, and in three days made living 

 creatures : and these of several shapes and colours ; 

 some being hard and tough, some smooth and soft ; some 

 are horned in their head, some in their tail, some have 

 none ; some have hair, some none ; some have sixteen 

 feet, some less, and some have none ; but as our Topsel * 

 hath with great diligence observed, those which have none, 

 move upon the earth, or upon broad leaves, their motion 

 being not unlike the waves of the sea. Some of them, 

 he also observes, to be bred of the eggs of other caterpillars, 

 and that those in their time, turn to be butterflies ; and 

 * In his History of Serpents. 



