CHAP, v.] THE FOURTH DAT. - 139 



some none ; some have sixteen feet, some less, and -some 

 have none, but (as our Topsel 1 hath, with great diligence, 

 observed,) those which have none, move upon the earth, or 

 upon broad 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, 2 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 its 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 peasecod, 

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

 neck, and two near the tail. It was found on a hedge ot 

 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 into a fly : but if it had lived, it 

 had doubtless turned to one of those flies that some call flies 

 of prey, 3 which those that walk by the rivers may, in summer, 

 see fasten on smaller flies, and I think, make them their 

 food. And it is observable, that as there be these flies of 

 prey, which be very large ; so there be others, very little, 

 created, I think, only to feed them, and breed out of I know 

 not what ; whose life, they say, nature intended not to exceed 

 an hour, 4 and yet that life is, thus, made shorter by other 

 flies, or by accident. 



1 In Ms "History of Serpents." 



. 2 No caterpillars lay eggs, though all are hatched from eggs laid by 

 butterflies, moths, or sandflies. Rennie. 



3 The caterpillar of the privet hawk moth (Sphinx Ligustri, ) which is 

 not, as Walton suspects, a fly of prey, or dragon-fly. B. 



4 That there are creatures " whose life nature intended not to exceed an 

 hour," is, I believe, not so well agreed, [quite fabulous. ED.] as that there 

 are some whose existence is determined in five or six. It is well known that 

 the Sphemeron, that wonderful instance of the care and providence of Grod, 

 lives but from six in the evening till eleven at night ; during which time it 

 performs all the animal functions ; for, in the beginning of its life, it sheds 

 its coat ; and that being done, and the little animal thereby rendered light 

 and agile, its spends the rest of its short time in frisking over the waters ; 

 the female drops her eggs, which are impregnated by the male ; these, being 

 spread about, descend to the bottom by their own gravity, -and are hatched 



