THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 12$ 



tawny-fly, the shell-fly, the cloudy or blackish fly, 

 the flag-fly, the vine-fly. There be of flies, cater- 

 pillars and canker-flies and bear-flies, and indeed 

 too many either for me to name or for you to re- 

 member. 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 beau- 

 tify the river-banks and meadows, both for the 

 recreation and contemplation of us anglers, 

 pleasures which, I think, 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 the coleworts or 

 cabbages. All which kinds of dews, being thick- 

 ened 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 colors, 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 

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