86 SOME EARLY ENGLISH NATURALISTS 



proof will suffice. He relates that on Feb. 24tli, 1574, 

 so great a multitude of cockchafers fell into the Severn 

 that the water-wheels were choked. The mills would 

 have been blocked to this day (etiamnum hodie), but for 

 the exertions of men, aided by fowls, ducks, nightjars, 

 sparrowhawks and bats. 



A curious word or phrase, and at long intervals a fact 

 which is both credible and worth preserving, ill repay 

 the reader's exertions. We find (Chap. I.) been, the old 

 plural of hee. Trying to prove that insects need not be 

 contemptible merely because they are small, Moufet has 

 recourse to the singular argument that Drake, though a 

 little man, was more than a match for the biggest of the 

 Spaniards.^ It would be hard to mention any more 

 valuable information which the book yields to a modern 

 naturalist than the statement that a Spanish galleon 

 captured by Drake was overrun with cockroaches.^ 



Mayerne's dedication is livelier reading than Moufet's 

 text. He dwells upon the wonders of the insect- world 

 with considerable animation. No doubt his disposition 

 was trustful, for he accepts such statements as that the 

 cicadas are fed on dew, and that the scarab rolls its 

 pellet of dung for a whole lunar month, following the 

 course of the sun all the time. There are better things 

 than these, however, in the dedication. Mayerne ex- 

 plains, quite truly, that the green grasshopper chirps 

 by rubbing its wing-covers together, and that its stomach 

 is armed with teeth. We find an interesting mention of 

 glass lenses, which had already been used to demonstrate 

 structural peculiarities of the flea, the movements of the 

 heart and blood in the louse, and the head and feet of 

 the itch-insect. 



An English translation of the Theatrum is given as 



^Preface. 2p^ 13g, 



