NATURAL HISTORY. 395 
ef eggs, covered with a fkin, of a yellowifh colour, and often as large 
as the infect itfelf. It has two pair of feelers, and the eye is large, 
black, and placed in the very middle of the head. It is commonin . 
ditches, and other ftanding waters. 
The teftaceous water Jn/ed, is covered with a fhell of an oblong oval 
fhape, and of a dufky brown colour. When it is taken out of the wa- 
ter, it fhuts the fhell clofe wp, and refembles the feed of fome plant ; 
but when it is put into the water again, it opens like fhell-fifh, of the 
bivalved kind: the feelers appear from one end of the opening, and 
the legs from the other ; the eye is large and black, and its motion is 
very fwift. It is common in ditches, and other ftanding waters. 
The aborefcent water Flea of Swammerdam, is of a blood-red colour, 
and fometimes are in fuch multitudes on the furface of ftanding waters, 
as to make them appear all over red; whence many fanciful people 
have thought that the water has been turned into blood, and prognoi- 
ticated fome terrible misfortune. It has femicircular feelers, and a 
crooked tail. : : 
The water Jnfed of Fry/ch, is without feet, and has a forked tail, 
like two briftles. Befides thefe, there are the fhort water infe&, with 
femicircular horns, and a flat back: the long-bodied water infect: the 
fmall-eyed water infe@, and the fhort water infect with a tail cloven 
into feveral parts. - 
The Sheep Tick is a fmall infed, which is common at the beginning | 
of the fummer in pafture grounds. It has a very comprefled fmooth 
body, covered with a tough fkin, and is of a fquareith thape: the colour 
is of a fhining black, or of a blackifh brown. When it fixes its head 
in the fkin of any animal, and particularly fheep, it fucks out the blood, 
upon which it fwells, and grows large and round in a very fhort time. 
Sometimes it fucks the blood.of men, and cannot be got out of the 
dkin without difficulty. It has fix feet fixed to the neck, and a fhort 
but very fharp fnout. It is an infe@ well known to country people. 
Moufet informs, that fome have miftaken it for the Sheep Loufe, 
from which it is greatly different; for this has a longer fnout, and the 
‘body is never fo fwelled with blood, as that of the Sheep Tick, but is 
always flat; betides the feet are of a dark reddifh colour,.and the back 
of an ath colour, marked with three exceeding fmall blackith points, 
and its fhape is like that of a heart. It never thrufts its head into the 
tkin, though it fucks out the blood by fits, and its excrements tinge the - 
wool with a greenith colour, which is fo lafting, that it can hardly be. 
got out, by wafhing it with foap. They will live in a fleece after it is 
fheared, for a year together, which is a certain fign that it can live 
without blood. : 
The Chegoe, called by the French Chigue, and by the Spaniards Nigas, 
is a very fmall black animal, which is met with in all places where 
there are afhes, and where they live naftily. It will penetrate pretty 
eafily through thin ftockings, and generally fixes under the toe nails, 
and the moft prominent parts of the fkin. ‘The pain that it canfes 
when it firft enters is like the bite of a Flea; and after it is once got in, 
it eats into the flefh fo gently, that it caufes no more at firft than a 
flight itching ; it becomes bigger by degrees, till at length it is the fize 
of a large pea, and then it produces Nits, whieh lodge about the old 
ne, and increafe in the fame manner, if there is not care taken to get - 
oo Bbz them 
