78 . THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART i. 



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 from 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 dews being thickened and con- 

 densed, 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 great leaves, their motion 

 being not unlike to 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 again, 

 that their eggs turn the following year to be caterpillars. And 

 some affirm that every plant has his particular fly or caterpillar, 

 which it breeds and feeds. ' I have, seen, and may therefore 

 affirm it, a green caterpillar or worm, as big as a small peascod, 

 which had fourteen legs, eight on the belly, four under the neck, 

 and two near the tail. It was found on a hedge of privet, and 

 was taken thence and put into a large box, and a little branch 

 or two of privet put to it, on which I saw it feed as sharply as 

 a dog gnaws a bone ; it lived thus five or six days, and thrived 

 and changed the colour two or three times; but, by some 

 neglect in the keeper of it, it then died, and did not turn to a 

 fly: but if it had lived, it had doubtless turned to one of those 

 flies that some call flies of prey, which those that walk by the 

 rivers may, in summer, see fasten on smaller flies, and, I think, 

 make them their food. And 'tis observable, that as there be 

 these flies of prey, which be very large, so there be others, very 



