140 



THE COMPLETE ANGLEE. 



[PART i. 



Aldrovandus. 



It is endless to tell you, what the curious searchers into 

 nature's productions have observed of these worms and flies: 

 but yet I shall tell you what Aldrovandus, 1 our Topsel, and 



others, say of the palmer- worm, 

 or caterpillar: That whereas 

 others content themselves to 

 feed on particular herbs or 

 leaves; (for most think, those 

 very leaves that gave them life 

 and shape give them a parti- 

 cular feeding and nourish- 

 ment, and that upon them 

 they usually abide ;) yet he 

 observes, that this is called 

 a pilgrim, or palmer-worm, for 

 his very wandering life, and 

 various food, not contenting 

 himself, as others do, with 

 any one certain place for his 

 abode, nor any certain kind of herb or flower for his feeding; 

 but will boldly and disorderly wander up and down, and not 

 endure to be kept to a diet, or fixt to a particular place. 



Nay, the very colours of caterpillars are, as one has 

 observed, very elegant and beautiful. I shall, for a taste of 

 the rest, describe one of them ; which I will, some time the 



by the warmth of the sun into little worms, which make themselves cases 

 in the clay, and feed on the same without any need of parental care. Vide 

 Swammerdam ; also Derham's " Phys. Theol.," p. 247. And to the truth 

 of these assertions, that these short-lived animals shed their coats, I myself 

 am a witness. One summer evening, at about seven o'clock, while fishing, 

 I suddenly observed my clothes covered with a number of very small flies, 

 of a whitish colour, inclining to blue ; they continued fixed, while I observed 

 those on my left arm wriggle their bodies about, till, at length, they dis- 

 engaged themselves from their external coat, which they left, and flew 

 away ; but what greatly astonished me was, that three whisks which each 

 of these creatures had at its tail which were slenderer than the finest hair, 

 and, but for their whiteness, would have been scarcely perceptible were 

 left as entire and unbroken as the less tender parts of the coat. The same 

 fact is communicated by Mr. Peter Collinson, in the " Philosophical 

 Transactions" 1746, No. 481, p. 329. H. 



1 Ulysses Aldrovandus, a great physician and naturalist of Bologna ; he 

 wrote thirteen vols. folio on subjects of Natural History, including one, " De 

 Piscibus," published at Frankfort, 1640. H. 



