stormy weather they carry a stone to poise and ballance their light bodies lest the impetuous violence of the wind should drive them from their houses and therefore we need not give credit to Lucian that they ought to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 footlesse creatures They do not breath by Pliny's favour but pant and are refreshed by transpiration Their stomach is framed of the most thin membrane wherein they not only conserve and keep their collected honey but concoct and purifie it which is the reason that Bees honey may be kept longer then any Manna or aerial body or rather is altogether incorruptible as we will shew hereafter Aristotle 9. Hist cap. 10. saith that there are nine kindes of Bees six whereof are sociable and do live together as Bees the Kings of Bees Drones Wasps Hornets Moths Also three solitary and insociable the greater Siren the lesser Siren and the Bumble-Bee of which kinde Simius Albertus does reckon up nine but gives them such harsh and barbarous names that it seems he rather faigned them than knew them Lib. 8. tract 4. cap. 2. But Bees do differ and are distinguished in regard of their matter form wit disposition and office and these are all their genuine and natural differences which I have collected out of infinite Authors Concerning their matter if we may credit the curious searchers into the works of nature some of them are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Lions brood others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bulls brood and some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Oxe brood and some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Calves brood But the best and noblest bees are generated and bred out of the Lion and the Kings and Princes of them do derive their pedegree and descent from the brain of the Lion being the most excellent part of his body it is no wonder therefore if they proceeding and coming from so generous a stock do assail the greatest beasts and being endued with a Lion-like courage do fear nothing The noblest Bees next unto these are those that are generated out of the Bull being also a strong and valiant beast the excellency both of their disposition and bodies being equal to their stock and pedegree The next are the Cow-Bees or Oxe-Bees which are indeed very industrious laborious and profitable but of a milder disposition and lesse inclinable to anger The Calves carkasse doth generate more soft and tender Bees excellent makers of honey but not able to endure labour in regard of their tendernesse and in regard of the weaknesse of their matter short lived Some also do write that Bees may be bred out of their own ashes sprinkled with honey and laid forth in the sun or some warm place which sort may be called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Self-begetters Bees of the best shape are small variously coloured round and bending the worser shaped are long The difference of their formes and shapes ariseth from four causes Nature place sexe and age For some are domestick or house Bees others are wilde or wood Bees these delight in the familiarity and company of men but not the other which do exercise themselves in making honey in trees clefts and crannies of the earth and in the rubbidge of old houses and walls Again some of the tame and gentler sort of Bees do live in pleasant gardens decked and beautified with all sorts of flowers these are great soft fat and large bellied others are kept in villages going far for their food and feed on flowers they light upon by chance The lesser more hairy yet for their work industry and skill they exceed the other Of both kindes some are bred with stings as all true Bees are and others without stings as the bastard Bees which have a greater and softer belly throat and body but not famous either for manners or ingenuity They call this kinde of Bee the Drone because they seem to be laborious and are not or because under the colour of labour for they sometimes carry wax and diligently fashion their combs they devour the honey And these are of a black shining colour and larger bodied Moreover some bees are descended from their Kings and Dukes whereof Aristotle maketh two kindes The yellow which is the best and the black streaked Others do reckon three Kings differing in colours black red and spotted or streaked Menecrates doth report that the divers coloured are an inferior sort of Bees but those streaked and diversified with black are the better All of them are twice as big as other Bees He that is elected Monarch or King of the whole Swarm is alwaies of an excellent shape and twice as big as any of the rest his wings are shorter his thighs straight and strong his gate loftier his aspect more stately and majestical and on his forhead a white spot like a shining Diadem or Crown differing much from vulgar Bees in regard of his shining colour But the place doth alter sometimes their form and sometimes their nature sex also and age do change them in both respects For in the Molucco Islands Bees are like to winged Ants but some-what lesser than the greater sort as Maximilianus Transylvanus in his Epistle to the Bishop of Salispurg eloquently relateth In America near the Rivers of Vasses and Plate the Bees are not like ours being no bigger than those small flies which trouble us in summer they build their nests in hollow trees and they make far greater combs and fuller of holes the end or tip of their wings as Oviedus and Thevetus relate seem to be bitten or cut off in the middle whereof they have a white spot and they have no offensive stings The wax which they make is of a duskish pitchy colour and they are for the most part evil conditioned Aristotle lib. 5. hist cap. 22. mentioneth a certain kinde of Bee that is of a soft industrious nature which maketh honey twice in a moneth being of a gentle pleasing disposition and busied only in making of honey Such there are also in the Countrey of Peru which do make a soft and melting kinde of honey which do stop their doors so close with wax that they leave but a very small hole for their ingresse or egresse But almost all our Bees in Europe are of a blackish colour not so much in regard of the easie concoction of thin substance than that they seem to be of a grosser diet and of a thicker composure and therefore the thicker matter doth remain within the skin which the Bees of Peru and Pontus by reason of their thin skins and the finenesse of their dewy nourishment do easily thrust forth unlesse that be the cause we must ascribe the variety of colour to wanton nature as we do for white bears and white black-birds which seeing she her self is various and of many shapes it is no wonder since she delights in variety of colours that she hath not made all Bees of
and well compacted sting with which he strikes through the Oxe his hide he is in fashion like a great Fly and forces the beasts for fear of him only to stand up to the belly in water or else to betake themselves to wood sides cool shades and places that the wind blowes through For whilest they stand in the cold water they flap their wet tails all about their bodies and so cause him to be gone The Scholiast of Nicander saith that they are bred of Horseleeches As if he would have us to understand Horseleeches by those slat creatures of which Arist makes mention before and yet it is against nature or experience that bloud-sucking mothers should bring forth a bloud-sucking brood He flies exceeding swiftly drawes bloud with much pain Pennius hath set down 2 very raâ—e kindes of Asili one of which was sent him out of Virginia by White the other out of Russia by Elmer a Chirurgeon for a gâ—eat present That out of Virginia was full as big as the biggest Flies having a reddish head and very like in shape too but only that the head was black and had from the shoulders a white streak drawn to the mouth having also bigger and blaâ—ker eyes He had in his mouth a long 〈…〉 ing and very strong his shoulder of a blackish brown colour from whence came forth two wings of a silver colour to the tail downward it had six or seven joynts or fissures of a whitish colour all the rest of the body blackish In swiftnesse of flight inferious to none surpassing the most his belly was between an ash and yellow colour or a pale green That of Elmer which came from Moscovia had silver wings longer than the whole body great eyes very long taking up almost all the head a black bill or beak hardish tripartite with which out of hand she penetrates hose lined with a three double cloth skin flesh and all sucking it with great pain As for the Generation of the Asili or the Fly with great eyes I wonder at the inconstancy of the Philosophers opinion thereupon For first he makes them to come of a little flat creature swimming in the water which the Scholiast of Nicander not unfitly cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Hirudines in English Horseleeches and in the 8. of his History he will have them the off-spring of the Gnats in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some living creatures live first in moysture and after that they change their shape and live out of it as it fals out with Gnats about rivers from which proceeds the Brees But how that can be I know not For of creatures that have wings it is impossible that other winged creatures of a diverse form should be generated as the diligent observer of Nature may easily gather And so much of the Oxe-fly which the Goths call Hestabryviss but the English have no name for it Wherein the Author seems to me to be mistaken because it hath afforded it a very proper name as is abovesaid He feeds not only on the juice of flowers and honey but on the bloud of beasts which with great tediousnesse and pain he sucks out There is another Fly much of the same sort with a head and body more inclining to green His shoulders shine with greennesse wings he hath two whitish in the middle and outward parts but are otherwise blackish or dunnish This only once Pennius saw it it Hanworth in the year 86. in the moneth of August In the year 82. he found in England two other sorts of Flies like Gnats one of which had a pretty big body of yellow and red colour it had two wings the head very long the tail reddish The other also had a long head long and slender shanks of a very sad black colour the latter were longer than the former which he stretched at length when he flew and let hang down A Countrey-man there was that affirmed for certain that out of their eggs for he had observed them coupling together came those worms that usually eat the leaves of trees The Fly called in Latine Tabanus is of the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason perchance of its stinging or pricking for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies also a spur wherewith horses are pricked or spurred The French call it Tahon the Italians Tabano the Spaniard Tavano the Germans Braem Kâ—flyege ross muck the Brabanters Rochleghebrem the Polonian Kirowia muka the English a Burrel-fly Stowt and Breese and also of sticking and clinging Cleg and Clinger This Calepine more boldly then truly saith hath four wings But with more judgement Aelian and others say it hath but two silver white The whole bulk or body is very long divided into three principal parts the head shoulders and the ventricle or belly distinguished with five or six clefts or incisures the whole body of a blackish white in the mouth of it it carries a strong long and browny Proboscis it hath six black feet in all parts else representing much the Dog-fly In the moneths of July and August by reason of the extremity of heat they are most fierce and do miserably handle Oxen and Horses and young cattel unlesse protected with fly-flaps boughs of trees or plants which they follow by sent of their sweat because they cannot reach them with their sight being very weak sighted from whence the infirmity of the eyes called purblindnesse is in Greek termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are generated saith Pliny of the worms that come out of the wood putrefied Which some cunning men before they have wings did use to binde about the wrist of the left arm as a remedy against Quartain Agues They suck out bloud with such force and in so great abundance that a friend of mine whom I dare believe told me that his horse being tyed to a tree was by reason of the multitude of them killed in lesse then six hours they had drawn out so much bloud that the spirits failing he fell down dead By these things it is manifest that the Tabani are of a different nature from the Asili notwithstanding that most of the Greek and Latine Authors do seem to confound them and make them all one Yea even Gesner himself in this very matter could not tell what to say in his book de Quadrup and indeed unlesse it were only Pierius and my friend Pennius now deceased no man as yet found the difference between them Ardoinus is here desired to be censured in the first place because he saith that both the Tabanus and Asilus have stings in their tails as the Wasps have and secondly because he makes them to have eight feet where as none of them in the world was ever known to have above six Lastly he reckons them in the classis or rank of Gnats whereas the Gnat never bites in the heat of the day as the Asilus and Tabanus do but altogether in the night at what
and boyled with oyl have the same virtue if they be anointed with them as also the drivel or foam of Oxen and Horses Affricanus Oftentimes Flies get into the wounds and ulcers of cattel so that by reason of the worms which they breed there is added much malignity First of all therefore those ulcers being made clean Columella applies an ointment made of Pitch old Oyl and Bacon grease both within and without afterwards he applies Whey wingled with Ashes Almost all the Summer long the ears of dogs are so exulcerated with Flies that they often lose them quite The which that it might be helped they should be anointed with oyl The Fly Ophioborus from eating or devouring of Serpents gets close saith Aetius between the scales of the Serpent Dryinam especially insomuch that at length it kils him outright this Fly from the colour of its wings is called of Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Brazen fly because it resembles the colour of brasse it feeds on black Beetles and by biting begets in the Serpent extremity of heat after that unquenchable thirst and death followes having fed upon the carkasses of these Serpents if afterwards they happen to bite a man the wound is incurable and deadly The Flies called Mâ—rdivora or Dung-flies are of divers sorts one is like the Flesh-fly but bigger his eyes of a darkish red shoulders black in which there is a circle somewhat long and whitish the back black drawn over with crosse lines or streaks The wings silver colour longer then the body most commonly they are seen about mens excrements seldome otherwhere There is also a Fly green all over so resplendent and glittering as if it were transparent the head dunnish silver wings frequently in the woods and most commonly about dung in bignesse equal to the common or ordinary sort of Flies Whether it be that which Silvaticus cals Giacucul I know not I have light upon another Fly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dung-eater lesse then the green Fly the body dun the head of a full red with a line along the middle of it I have another the body rough yellowish the eyes black standing out the shoulders and back black curiously spotted the tail ash-colour Another fly there is whose shoulders are of a pale red somewhat towards a Saffron colour it hath two horns longer then the rest silver wings covering all the body the head black foursquare and small very frequently seen about horse-dung To conclude about dunghils from whence also it is probable they are generated there are certain yellowish Flies the body somewhat longer than the rest and bunching up of whose generation we have before made mention Also I saw another rare Fly not every where to be met withal that feeds on a mudwall made with mud and putrefied materials it was black all over only it had silver wings and in the shoulders it hath four white spots in the rest of the body eight i. e. on each side four the eyes white the frontlet marked as it were with a white asterisk or little star out of which shoot out two black horns and long it hath also upon the top of the thigh or shank a little white spot sprinkled up and down This Fly I keep though dead in a box for the rarity of it Bombilophagus is a Fly montanous big very black the body rough the eyes somewhat long great the head of a bright red for his prey he fals fiercely on the Humble-bee and getting the better of him by flight nimbly gets upon his back and sticking close to him doth so extremely bite that he throwes him headlong to the ground sucks out what honey he findes and goeth away conqueror In the top of Cartmel hills Pennius affirms in his papers that he saw it as long as the fight lasted but the fortune of the battel falling to the Flies the Humble-bees were put to the worst and slain And thus much of the Zoophagi or the Flies that live upon living Creatures The Azoophagi so called are those that make their living out of creatures without life and those are either on the land or in the water of the land Flies some feed only on the earth and the dew of it others of plants herbs and flowers growing thereon The one I call in a term of my own Ground-suckerâ— Humisugae the other Hearb-eaters Herbivorae The Humisuga or Ground-sucker hath a dun coloured body in the head toward the mouth a whitish shining spot the belly and feet black at the comming forth of the wings on both sides a white spot the back grey in the shoulders according to the length of them four sullied white lines the wings silver and if they be put into the water shining like the glo-worm it is found in foot-paths and Mole-heaps newly turned up for it loves the ground that is made plain and smooth with treading on and therefore called in English the Graypath Fly it seldome comes upon flowers especially at what time the Mole casts up fresh earth of the juice whereof it is sustained Of the Herbivora or those that feed on herbs or flowers there are divers sorts or species whereof three are like the Bee termed of Lucian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 military or war flies In regard they are bigger lustier and stronger very specious to look on very gallantly set out with two silver wings The first and chief of these hath a blackish head the middle of the back being cut crossewise with two overthwart lines the end of the tail black the body otherwise mud colour The second not much unlike the head blackish the shoulders according to the length of them drawn with three yellow and black lines the rest of the body marked alike and with the same colours The third and least of these the shoulders are rough and yellow the head red the rest of the body is divided with four yellow and four black lines going acrosse it The bodies of all of them do glitter and as if they had nothing in them are transparent They are conversant in gardens sucking the juice of the flowers Lucian describes these military flies thus There are a kinde of Fly which some call Military others Dog-flies that make a very harsh and shrill noise and fly exceeding swiftly These are very long lived and continue all the winter without meat especially when drawn together and fastened to ridges and tops of houses In whom this is most worthy of admiration that both of them do the naturall office both of male and female like the Son of Mercury and Venus who was of a mixt nature or Hermophrodite Much like to these is there another Fly called Apiaria of a shining black having two wings gathering wax and fastening the juice that he hath gathered from the flowers to his hinder legs as the Bee doth He comes abroad in Autumn and is seldome seen at any other time Whether this be that which Arist cals Sirenis it differs certainly in
the number of wings only for that he makes to have four wings whereas Nature hath afforded this but two There are other sorts of Flies that devour herbs and flowers that are not like Bees to wit the Struthiopteri Eninopteri and Chelidonii because it is like to the Swallow Of the Struthiopteri I have seen three sorts The first whereof is tender and sort six footed with two wings the belly longer then ordinary sending forth from the head a little above the eyes two feathers like Ostriches feathers as it were horns of a downy softnesse as soft as any feathers whatsoever crump shouldered all the rest of the body white longer then the wings which are black The second is of the same colour whitish the head of a dusky colour otherwise it differeth little or nothing at all from the former The third is all alike only the horns are not so soft and downy the tail is white the body long with five white lines going athwart it the feet long marked with black and white colours as it goeth it lifteth up the tail a little and softly claps his two transparent wings together These three species do appear in the Spring time with the first in gardens hedges and shady places very frequently before and after rain The Erinopteros is a fly all over white or rather silver colour small and every where downy inasmuch as when it sits upon a flower if you look not hard upon it you would think it were a feather the wings of it are divided the feathers being severed one from the other almost like Birds wings Pennius received one of these painted from Edmund Knivet afterwards he often saw them in hedges and places set with privet The Fly called Chelidonius is swifter of wing then all the rest sides tail head brown and hairy the eyes black and hanging out the bill or rather the nose picked out of the top of which start out two horns the top of the shoulders as also the back black two silver wings the forepart whereof do answer to the blacknesse of the feet sometimes it sits in one place for a great while together as if it were unmovable but as soon as you come near it it s out of your sight before you can say What 's this and will not yeeld a jot to the Swallow from whom it hath its name for swiftnesse of â—light Pennius received another flower-Fly of the learned Carolus Clusius black having two silver wings two dainty white eyes in the back having seven yellow spots in the midst whereof is to be discerned a speck of black There are Flies that are found in beans of sundry colours but especially of a pale purple which I conceive do come of the smal worms called Midae For when they are gone which is in the midst of Summer suddenly there comes forth a great number of those Flies swarming amongst the Beans The Fly of Napellus I have not seen but those that come out of those black grains that stick to the stalk of the wormwood much less than Millet seed more black than any Moor only famous for their wonderful smalnesse There is a certain Fly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very rare and wonderful whether you respect the form or the shortnesse of its life It hath many names Aelian calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of others it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Diaria it moves with four wings and as many feet for that it hath not peculiar to it in regard of the shortnesse of its life only saith the Philosopher but also as it is a four footed creature and a flying creature It comes forth with the Sun groweth flourisheth languisheth and dieth the same day with the Sun setting In the time of the Summer Solstice these diary creatures break forth out of certain husks of putrefied grapes which husks or such as seem to be so whether they are a kinde of Aurelia proceeding from some kinde of canker-worms living in the water it is not easie to shew for in that particular the Philosopher is silent from whom most of this story is gathered Pliny cals them thin membranes Aristot small bottles and saith they are common to be seen in the River Hippane by the Cimmerian Bosphorus of Pontus They live a life both short and sweet for they live not beyond the space of a natural day and in the evening they put an end as to their lives so to their miseries In the mean while they are sustained and kept alive with their own radical moisture neither are beholding either to air or earth hence we may gather the length of their life yea rather admire and wish for it These Insects Cicero speaks of in the first of his Tuscul Questions these also Matthias Michoides in his 2. Book de Sarmatia Europaea describes in these words You may take notice saith he that in the Rivers of Russia and Lituania especially in Boristhenes and Botus in the Summer there are a great company of the Flies called Ephemers or Day Flies they are Worms and Flies both some have four others six wings in the morning they run upon their feet over the water about noon they fly about the banks the sun setting as many as were bred that day dye in the self-same day Which description doth much differ from Aristotles History of them first because in the morning it is a creeping worm then about noon a fly altogether besides that he giveth to some six wings contrary to the minde of Arist Jul. Scaliger in his learned Exoterick Exercitations against Cardanus describes this Fly after this manner I have observed a kinde of Fly frequenting Sarca and the Lake of Bennacum called Ephemerus in the evening but never any in the morning being taken it lived only a night it hath four very long wings how many feet I know not but if it have six for I do not remember how many it hath it sufficeth it hath a head like a Fly great eyes the snout or beak rolled up together the belly large the tail exceeding long and full of joynts in the end forked in some three forked of colour a darkish yellow in the bigger sort in the lesser of a brown or dunnish very specious The Taurini call this insect Monietta as they would say Monachella The Adriatick about Meranum and Tergeste call it Cuzotulum of my Countreymen it is called Sitivola i. e. Sagitella Aelian lib. 2. de Animal c. 4. sets forth another kinde of these Insects such as are bred of sowre wine Lees which when the vessell is opened come forth and the same day for nature hath given them a beginning of life but in regard of the many miseries to which it is incident quickly freeth them of it before they can be sensible of their own or any others unhappiness But yet what these Flies of which Aelian speaketh be unlesse they be those that we call Bibiones I know not
shels of the Canker-worm covered with earth The day Flies from their Aureliae either hanging upon or sticking unto the boughs of trees They are for the most part rough and as it were dusty flying in the dark very tender these on the other side flying in the day light are more plain smooth even and have no dust upon them They fly seldome in the day but toward the close of the evening lest the dust that is upon them being dryed by the heat of the Sun and drowth should shake off being never used to be wet with rain But these are not able to fly by night lest the night dew should wet them quite through and hinder both their flight and their health wherefore in rainy weather and all night they shrowd themselves under the leaves and never fly abroad but in clear and fair weather The Phalenae are no lesse affected with the candle than these with the day-light wherefore these rejoyce at the day-star that is to say the Sun but those at the night-star to wit the Moon and Stars and candle-light resembling somewhat the nature splendor and glimmering light of the Stars The second Phalenae of the first magnitude as it is somewhat lesse in bulk of body than the former so it far excels it in the gloss and splendor of colours as if Nature in adorning of this had spent her whole painters shop and had intended the former for the King of Butterflies that is to say strong valiant blackish freckled and this for the Queen delicate tender fine all beset with pearls and precious stones and priding it self in embroidery and needle-work her body downy like Geese something smooth and hairy like Martens or Sable skins the head little great eyes standing out two cornicles like feathers of a yellow or boxie colour she hath four great wings every one of them having eyes of divers colours the apple whereof is black the circle or roundle next to it of various colours with yellow flame-like white and black coloured circles and semicircles The outer wings from their original to their extremities are whitish beautified with certain little veins and specks the edges whereof are adorned with a welt or guard and a hem of dunnish or dark yellow colour the inner wings brown or tawny having one eye apiece as the former with a three-fold border the first whereof is plain the middlemost part gosing in and out like a scollop both of a fiery colour the outmost of all of a pale white and as it were sown on by some Skinner or Furâ—â—er she goes upon strong rough brawny thighs of the same colour with the rest of her body This did Carolus Clusius send from Vienna of so elegant and notable figure that it is easier to wonder at and admire than with fit expressions to describe The third sort hath a great body rough and blackish each wing hath one eye the sight or apple whereof is black the roundle brown the half circle white There are divers pieces in the wings of a watry Amethyst colour the edges of the wings at the first sight appear ash-colour afterwards Eagle-colour The head very short and little putteth forth on either side a black eye the apple whereof is of a notable whiteness between those break forth two very small short horns of a dunnish colour It is begotten of a rough Canker-worm not a smooth The fourth hath a great dark coloured head out of which arise two streight cornicles somewhat black the neck is adorned with vermilion specks the brest rough square duskish the shoulders coil black the belly of Amethyst or purple colour divided with five or six circles or rounds the feet black as pitch the wings of a light brown full of long black little veins The fifth hath a white head black eyes the horns a little yellow the outmost wings long of a sad colour between white and brown the innermost being lightly and as it were by the by coloured reddish the shoulders very black the rest of the body somewhat of a rose colour bound about with seven black circles a white line running all along the middle of the belly The seventh hath the outer wings white with certain brown spots here and there as if it were watered Chamblet the neck ring'd about as it were with a red skin reaching all down the shoulders like a Fryers cowle the head is red the eyes pearl colour the horns flame colour the innermost wings of a shining red speckled black the feet red the belly all of the same colour with seven incisures or clifts of a deep red lead colour The eighth is almost all over brown but the edges of the wings and the middle part of the horns are of yellow or box colour The ninth is almost like unto it but that the edges of the wings are like black sand it hath horns broad and bended of a whity-brown colour the middle of the outermost wings stopped with a round white spot The tenth is of a like bignesse all over of a white brown but that the middle of the outermost wings is marked with a white spot and the eye with a very black apple The head of the eleventh is tuberous the horns slender the body like clay trodden otherwise the wings are all of a dark silver colour The twelfth somewhat of an ash-colour the wings spotted black the eyes black the apple white The thirteenth hath very little or no horns at all the body all over yellow except the eyes which are little and black and the wings which are whitish The fourteenth appears of colour various it hath black tuberous horns as also the eyes and feet the shoulders are drest with five white plumes as it were of which the two middlemost have three black specks the wings snow white bespeckled here and there with black yellow and blew specks the body russet articulate or jointed the sides whitish she puts her tail in or out as she pleaseth it is sharp yellowish jointed all the body as it were sprinkled with dust otherwise in regard of the tuberous cornicles it had come in the number of the day Butterflies It layeth abundance of yellowish eggs in the laying whereof she puts forth a little tail which she puls in again at pleasure The fifteenth hath two black slender cornicles the head and shoulders hairy of a dun colour the neck adorned with a collar of Vermilion the shanks reddish the outmost wings chamoletted with white and dun the innermost are exactly red spotted with black spots the body of a light vermilion rounded about with six black guards or welts The sixteenth seems to be very rare if you look upon it as it lies on its back it seems to be all over of a murry colour if as it lies green and yellow it hath five very red lines or streaks drawn along the shoulders as also seven spots set quite through the middle of the back do adorn the rest of the body the wings also traverst
smal long beams dispersedly drawn like threds to the very outmost of the coat and this is adorned within with golden crooked lines like the Moon being it self a murry nicked on the sides like a Saw the body is purple coloured from black the eyes shine like gold the feet and horns are black 13. The body and wings appear black upon the black wings jagged in the circumference first hairs grow then borders and lastly golden studs also the small eyes in the black head are tinctured with gold but the horns grow forth with spots white and black and end with a small very black knob 14. It much delighteth in the curiosity of the decking of it the body is rough and blackish from white a black eye and a white pupilla about the bald eye you shall see a circle almost white as snow the horns are the same with the former the outward face of the greater wing is known by the flaming colour golden lines being drawn upon it with four dinted skirts about the end of it three round pence set triangular do adorn it But the inward face of it seems most pleasant with divers golden scales and studs put like a coat of male and tyles of a house also a golden line beautifies the utmost part of the wings It represents a Peacock very much by its wings and as that is so hath it a proud and gallant body the feet and legs are some-what black lest it should be proud of its feature the snout is like a spiral line made up like a Maze 15. This hath also a hairy beak wreathed up like a vine tendrel it is inwardly ash-coloured and outwardly a faint gray the wings are prickly jagged like bats wings some dun lines do outwardly part these inwardly six black studs do much set them forth The outward wings of all are a dark green in sight which some spots and pieces of white and yellow do beautifie the inward are perfectly red being sprinkled with ten most black spots the belly shines with eight yellow scales the back is red inclining to yellow and the tip of the tail is a light blue The rough shoulders are commended by a yellow Moon drawn downwards a white silver coloured apple makes the red eyes more sharp 1. The eyes seem yellowish the horns a decayed russet the wings and all the rest of the body are a pale yellow the inward wings are marked outwardly with one only full yellow spot but inwardly they are tinctured with a certain black spot upon a watry green the back is blackish from a blew the belly is yellowish it proceeds from an Aurelia coloured with gold 2. The second is not so pleasing a colour the inward wings from a fading blew decline to a Crane colour and end as it were into a lead-colour the outward wings are blacker noted here and there with dark spots and the body seems to be the same it flies rudely with dented wings and retched in the borders and as it were prickly and like a mourner of that kinde it never comes forth but in mourning apparell 3. We have painted out this as it were stiffe and raising it self with the wings lifted up it hath also prickly dents but the outward wing from a pale yellow is marked with the black pieces but the next part of the inward wing from the root is dark black the middle part is pale the last part is whitish chequered with right and thwart fibres the body appears dusky the eye is black as pitch the horns are black 4. This is distinguished two waies for when she opens either wing to ballance her body the body shewes black and four dark wings fastned to it ridged as it were with a black pencil and ending in a shining rusty colour but when it sits on flowers and lifts up the wings the first wing is yellowish adorned with a comely round spot like a target the colour whereofis pale the boss of it black the outward circle citron coloured the belly and breast and the whole face are white the black horns incline toward a yellow 5. It seems inside and outside all alike the head and wings look pale the body is wan as also the horns the eyes are flaming red the shoulders are hairy with a pale down When it stretcheth its wings towards you it appears a shining sandy colour like herb dragon with black spots the body also if you see the back seems a watry black the belly somewhat more dark they eye is black clearwith a white or whitish apple the horns are black as a crow the wings from you are of an unpleasant brown and of a decayed Weesilcolour 7. The Jagged wings represent a fire-stone shining with brasse coloured little veins and the skirt also being sprinkled with black spots the whole body is of a shining black but that white points divide the horns and in the black forehead golden eyes twinkle after a sort 8. This hath the same kinde of body but the horns are reddish from yellow the wings appear changeable marked with divers pleats ridges borders skirts of many colours all these colours are sad and dull to the eye they want all clearnesse and varnish and are pleasant only in their mixture placing and number in some places they represent a smoky flame elsewhere an unpleasing dark colour and a fading red and the rubies included in the last border in white semicircles are nothing lively 9. The outward wings are spotted with dirty muddy spots about the last part they are adorned with a black target the middle whereof is set forth with an ivory point the inward wings have four such targets but augmented with a yellow circle besides the two middlemost are of a fit magnitude the two outmost are very small the body of this creature is a whitish dark the eyes that stick out are black but if you look upon the inward part of the inmost wing they look smoky and they are very beautifull with six gilded leaves curiously disposed 10. The head is a pure white but some dusky and black spots adorn the milky wings the back and sides are red from yellow 9 or 10 black spots put under the cuts do adorn them 11. In proportion and almost in colour and form of the body it represents the Eagle amongst birds of prey It hath narrower wings than other Butterflies it hath as it were a broad feathery tail the inward wings are not watry coloured like the rest of the body but red from yellow or of a flame colour it hath a crooked nose like the Eagle a belly hoary the horns are great and strong of the same colour with the uppermost wings the eyes are pretty well prominent black with a pupill white as snow 12. This hath the same form it only differs in colour The body is ash-colour the tail is black and the back is something silver coloured the wings are long and blackish and polluted with little black spots the inward wings appear
dusky dark coloured both these kindes of Butterflies are wonderfull swift and dare for flight to contend with the Eagle 13. This is the swiftest of all and hath shoulders seeming of a yellow moss colour the wings are white as milk in the extremities of them they are marked with five or six dusky feathers the middle of the yellowish back is adorned with a cole black spot of both sides two downy extuberances are thrust forth the rump is compassed about with a certain black down it will-fly as fast as any Swallow and indeed is swifter than any Bird. We have seen but eight of the smaller kinde 1. The first parts of the inner wings are of a full bright shining scarlet colour and delicate red but the outward wings represent a light purple mingled of black and red and drawn over with some snow white spots the rest of the body is black even the branched horns also 2. This is silver colour at the roots of the wings which afterwards are purple coloured from blue the uppermost wings are graced inwardly with two black white studs the body is full of dusky spots it hath six purple feet three put forth on each side it hath a crooked bill out of the head four small horns break forth besides the two long ones 3. If you should see this fly you would say that the wings are of a decayed purple colour passing to a lively blue and all plighted severally but inwardly there are round eyes they seem more gray and cankered the head is blue from green the body is deckt with dusky and white laces the eyes seem very black and the apples of them very white 4. It comes in a pleasant habit with wings set with eyes that are of a most heavenly incomparable blew The most perfect artificer Nature it self made it all eyes that you would say directly that Argus eyes were not set into the Peacocks tail but into the wings of this Butterfly which she doth stretch out against the Sun with no lesse pride than the Peacock doth and by the heavenly colour which she excels in she is almost able to shame the Peacock 5. The body is of a Crane colour the upper wings are green in a white stalk in the middle they are yellow and ash-colour the inferior wings are at the root of a dark green otherwise whole but inwardly they are sprinkled often with spots of an unpleasant green the eyes are black as are the heads of their horns 6. It hath round buncht smooth shoulders which are of the colour of ashes mingled with ink the body is full of cuts and is of an ash kinde of colour it hath narrow wings and the utmost are of a Crane colour shining with some exceeding bloud red drops the little head the feet the horns are like the body in colour 7. You would say that this is kin to that is bred of Ginny pepper and setting aside that it is lesse and more black in body â—nd the silver colour of his upper wings it hardly differs from that 8. All the wings are faint clay colour or rather shining with a pale yellow with some brown spots and others that represent old cankered colours the little eyes are black as a raven otherwise it is all yellow 9. All the wings are painted with white and gray like sea shell-fish the borders are rounded and deckt with white sines running through the middle with indentures 10. This hath wings like Perwinkle shels set with studs it is mingled colour of a white and obscure red and doth set forth to us the unspeakable power of God in the diversity of its colours Of the use of Butterflies He that beholds the forms clothing elegancy and rich habits of the Butterflies how canhe choose but admire the bountisul God who is the Author and giver of so rich treasure wherefore art thou proud in decking thy self and takest so much delight in thy own beauty possess thy temporary fading goods without envie for know that there is no Butterfly but is as beautiful and pleasing and for the length of their life they have a more constanâ— comeliness than thou hast thou hast it may be an incredible agility of body and numbleness in running but yet O man if thou shouldest exceed all men thou canst not equall a Butterfly But you will reply that your cloathing is incomparable and that you can boast of the Persian and Tyrian silk of the best purple dyes brought unto you by shipping truly should you but see the rich robes of any Butter-fly besides their purple dyes and the rowes of pearls and the borders set with diamonds rubies the pyropus opals emrods if you did but see and consider seriously the elaborate composition of their futures and joynts and the imbroidered work here and there of fine divers coloured twine silk set with studs and eyes of gold and silver thou wouldst let fall thy painted tail like the Peacock and casting thy eyes down to the ground from whence thou wert made thou wouldst learn to be more wise It may be thou wert born at first in a house of clay and mud walls or else in a palace built of polished stones but some Butterflies are born in their houses that are the Aureliae like to pure gold and exceed Attalus for the excellency of their birth and delicacy of their apparel Learn therefore O mortal Man who ever thou art that God that is best and greatest of all made the butterfly to pull down thy pride and by the shorrness of their life which is of no great continuance be thou mindful of thy own failing condition Weâ—t thou as strong as Milo or Hercules and wert fenced or guarded about with an host of Giants for force and valour remember that such an Army was put to the worst by an army of Butterflies flying in Troops in the air in the year 1104. and they hid the light of the Sun like a cloud Licosthenes relates that on the third day of August 1543. that no heaâ—b was left by reason of their multitudes and they had cevoured all the sweet dew and natural moisture and they had burn'd up the very grasle that was consumed with their dry dung Also in the year 1553. as Sleidanus reports a little before the death of Mauritius the Duke of Saxony an infinite Army of Butterflies flew through great part of Germany and did infect the grasse herbs trees houses and garments of men with bloudy drops as though it had rained bloud But it may be thou art in love with some female beauty and desirest to please her O fool remember the fate of the Phalena Butterfly which being invited by the light of the candle as by a fair beauty is consumed by the flame it fell in love withall and rejoycing like the Pyrausta bred in the fire removing but a little from it is presently dead And thou great Astrologer who makest Aries to be the forerunner of the Spring rather adore the Butterfly
matter distilled from the head into the kernels of the ears whether they be bound upon the place or the place anointed therewith they serve also together with their earth to anoint the Kings-Evill Their ashes mixt with oyl bring old ulcers to Cicatrice The Kricket diluted in water is good against the Stone or difficulty of urine Bellunensis used to drop the oyl of them into the ears of them that are diseased in that part by that means taking away all the dolour and pulsation of them Marcellus much commends the stroking of them upon the tumours of the jawes and binding them upon the same and in the opinion of Haly being hung about the neck they cure the Quartan Ague Serenus saith they cure the swelling of the Tonsils in this Distich A Kricket with right hand on Tonsils prest To kill the Kricket gives the patient rest Children as the Italians do Grashoppers do keep them in a box bored full of holes or bags to hear them sing in the night giving them leaves of herbs whereon to feed and so keep them all the Summer They are kept in Africk in iron cages and are sold at a great rate as I have heard by some Merchants to cause sleep For those of the inhabitants of Fesse are exceedingly delighted with their shrill noise as much as the Irish and Welch with the sound of the Harp With which also learned Scaliger seems to be not a little affected when for their musick sake he kept them inclosed in a box the which if he had kept in such a thing where they might have had air he had not found dead after three daies but able to live a long while lib. de plant For being secluded from the air they cannot live which besides air and sound have nothing in them nor seem to be any thing else The last Summer I had a male and a female of them but within eight daies I found the sides of the female eaten out by the male which also it self two daies after expired The Bird Lanio as the learned Brewer hath observed is fed with them The which she fastens upon thorns near to her nest of young for fear they should want food When they become offensive by reason of their number thus they may be driven away or taken off Take a good deep dish filled of water and place it before their holes mouth with a good deal of oatmeal round about it so the Krickets leaping up into the boul are drowned or if you mix water with Vitriol and inject it into their hole they will be gone Hitherto I thought good also to refer the water Grashopper of Rondoletius whose head is like a pentangle having as it were five corners the eyes round and standing out of the head not great but black the cornicles very short coming forth out of the outermost part of the mouth on each side it hath three feet the hindermost longer than the rest on the back it hath little wings or some coming the tail forked the belly oftentimes as it were cleft the colour of the body some-what dun or rather black and white I found them in muddy and standing waters but the nature of it I yet know not This differs from the land Grashopper both for that the head stands out more and it seems to have some kinde of neck and also it hath wings not fit for flight but only to lift it self up This is said to make a kinde of a pleasant noise like the land Grashopper upon the leaves of the water Lilly pond-weed and other water herbs The which I have not as yet heard CHAP. XVIII Of Moths called Blattae MOst men talk much of the Blattae but few or none able to describe what the Blattae properly so called are neither do they give the least mark whereby they may be known but gathering divers notions here and there do put them all together and confound them And but that Pliny had brought some light to this History the Blattae had altogether been omitted or lost First of all therefore we shall shew to what Insects the name of Blatta was given according to Authors then we shall set down what the true Blatta and properly so called is Now under the name of Blatta are comprehended both the worms growing in the ears as also those Phalens which trouble the Hives of Bees But since these desire the light the other altogether shun it why they should be accounted Phalens I do not see The Blatta also is a little worm eating cloathes or books So Horace in his Sermons Blattarum tinearum epulae c. But Martial altogether distinguisheth between the Blatta and the Tinea and sheweth them to be creatures of several kindes It is taken also of the Moderns for the little worm called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of whose web silken garments are made Some call the little worm that groweth in the grain in the low oake Blatta from whence cometh the Blattean colour or grain colour So Turneb advers l. 18. c. 17. l. 28. c. 23. The Blattean colour is died with worms which come out of the grain of Cockle out of whoâ—e bloud is produced a most curious colour not black as some think but a bright purple or scarlet To which the Book de natura rerum Gualter de Conchis do assent The worms of the belly some call Blattae Cardanus in one place calleth the worms that breed in meal or bran Blattae Gaza interprets the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blattae But the proper and right name thereof is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Pollux 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also according to Lucian deâ—iding a man that was no Scholar yet bought many books The Italians call it Blatta and Tarma the Hetrurians Piattela the Germans Wibell Brottworme Brottkarfaer Malkaefaer Springwibell they of Norimberg call one species of them by way of sport Schavahen because it cannot endure cold as Cordus writeth the Illyrians Swinie the Polonians Molulowy the Hungarians Moly the Spaniards Ropa cova potilla Now the Blatta is an Insect flying in the night like to a Beetle but wanteth the sheath wings The Mill or Bake-house Moth I have seen the Greeks call the female if I am not deceived because it had no wings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is longer thicker and of a more shining black colour than the ordinary soft Moth with a little forked mouth placed as it were under its belly the cornicles like to the first little hollow eyes or rather eye-holes the breast foursquare with the four foremost feet fastned to it the hindermost to the belly above the shoulders appear as it were little wings though they are not so indeed the rest of the body somewhat thick cut all over round about circle or oâ—bicular wise in the sides resembling the form of a saw the tip of the tail and a fork growing
with murry spots or shadows rather the beginning whereof from the head to the bottom of the breast is terminated with a line of whitish or silver colour The seventeenth when it goes upon its feet and its wings close to its body looketh dun but when it flieth with the wings stretcht forth the innermost wines are carnation set about the edges with a blackish list or border it hath very long cornicles and the promuscis or snour doubled in or rolled up together the gray shoulders are marked with round sand colour spots the side also and all the joynts of the body are set and edged about with hoary hairs The eighteenth being very rare indeed was sent me by Clusius The hornes whereof pide colour the head black as pitch the nose crooked the circle of the eye white the neck scarlet or crimson the shoulders being rough of hairy are covered as it were with a sable mantle the outer wings decked with a white and black hem the innermost red speckled here and there with black spots the body black as likewise the feet but the sides of the body are set out on each side with seven bloud-colour spots Like unto this there was another sent but with the cornicles altogether crow colour and on the middle of the shoulders dressed with a pure white list as it were with a string of pearl Of all these the bodies seem to be of a great bignesse Now we shall addresse our discourse to the middle sort of Phalenae The first of which is white all over but only that the outer wings are bedawbed with certain black spots freckles and the innermost with very red specks and pimples white in the midst the eyes very black the feet and horns yellowish in stead of a nose there comes forth a rough hair or bristle the which is wound round up together like a roll The second the whole body rough or hairy and of a light red and so are the outer wings were it not for whitish spots and hems that go about and yellow little eyes in them the cornicles being yellow are marked with black spots the inner wings are of the colour of the marygold but adorned with eyes and hems like the former The third hath four white wings the outer wings overcast with little blew veins here and there plentifully and two round blackish spots in the middle the line that is about the wings is yellow and the cornicles of the same the head and body black the eyes exceeding white the sides of the shoulders are marked with four very white oblique lines on each side The fourth hath broad horns of crane colour the body black the sides gray the wings yellowish all over besprinkled with black spots like dragons broad at the top and afterwards round the edge of the wings like the Bats snagged and as it were prickly all over black within six white specks pearls being placed on each side do set it out The fifth is all over black but that it hath pale reddish spots upon the wings The sixth hath the body and the cornicles black the eyes white the wings are black underneath above trimmed with golden hair spots to which are joyned black studs run through with asilver coloured threed the outmost wings have a black border winding in and out with gold laid underneath and as it were wrought in and out with a needle The seventh broad horned the black body waxing hoary I know not whether I may count it for a discredit or a grace to it The beginning of the wings are red the rest yellowish but each part embossed with black square spots and a golden threed running along the edges The eighth hath four cornicles spreading wide of ash-colour two of them very long and larger in the borders the body like the former the wings of a pale ash-colour chequered with black and painted every where about the edges with drops of the same colour The ninth the head eyes cornicles body and innermost wings do represent the golden ocre the shoulders and outmost wings are black but only for a black border having on each side of it an ash-colour line The tenth hath its body yellow bedropt with black from the neck to to the tail both back and sides the eyes cornicles and feet perfect black the outermost wings white but garnisht with borders of yellow black small studs and spots likewise The eleventh if you look on the wings it is snow or milk white but only that it is all to bespeckled with little black spots the shoulders also are white and downy the body and back yellow and joynted having eight little black spots the eyes big and standing out of the head between which sprout out two black and hairy cornicles In the night time she flies about the meadowes and pastures The twelfth hath its wings so long that it can scarse fly it hath very short cornicles little very black small eyes all the body else is white being here and there sprinkled with certain yellow veins and hairs The thirteenth except its black eyes is of a Crane-colour somewhat blackish the cornicles more than ordinary long the body rough and hairy the wings of the same colour with the body but about the edges glistering with a greenish glassie varnish The fourteenth is a very rare one though all over almost of a sand-colour it hath cornicles for the bignesse of the body strong black and crooked like the oxe the eyes great and black the head short the neck thick the outermost wings adorned with certain black studs the ridge of the back is drest up as it were with five black heads of Gilliflowers three forked The fifteenth hath its wings of a pale ash-colour all over amongst all the rest it is destitute of cornicles the eyes are some-what black the back yellowish and set with five dusky coloured spots The sixteenth seemeth to be of the same colour but that it is streaked with black athwart the outermost wings but this is every where of one colour except the eyes which are black It hath a long body joynted four long narrow wings six feet those behinde are twice as long as those before it hath slender cornicles but growing out very far 17. This comes of the Caterpillar of a Silk-worm white all over but the eyes which are blackish and certain small yellowish veins running straight over the wings and crosse the joynts of the body I call it the Silk-worm Phalena Of which more in the story of the Silk-worms The least sort of Phalenae 1. In the Classis of the least sort of all we shall place one and the first very admirable going on four very black feet it hath the outer wings azure the innermost yellow and the innermost which is not usual lesse then the outermost the yellow body also is so big that the wings can scarce cover it the cornicles are full of little points and the eyes all but the sight blackish the head and the
big teeth excellently made to devour the fruits withall The second seems to be like this but that the hood is fastned to the neck the nose also and mouth are more red and it hath greater spots in the wings 〈…〉 third is of a green co 〈…〉 〈◊〉 shanks whitish the tail blackish 〈◊〉 wings beset with greater store of spots and about the edges of a pale red Now these are females from whom the three males differ in this that either in the end or above the tail they have two or three prickles or stings and the middle of their hood appeareth more red The first sort of the lesser Locusts called of the Tigurines Holtsspecht is in body black the utmost wings spotted the innermost spattered with virmilion the thighs brown or swarthy with black lines curiously drawn up and down Of the second the cornicles eyes and shanks are of a pleasant red the thighs or shanks are also diversified with black lines the wings speckled the belly of a dark red upon yellow all which do exhibit a very fine pretty creature The third seems to be of a dark ash-colour the cornicles very short and the wings of an unusual length longer then the body The fourth is all over of a darkish green but that the hood is set with two black lines and the ends of the shanks are of a lively shining red The fifth is a little lesser than the rest but in ordering and variety of colour more pleasant to the sight the body head and feet are of a faint red with green wings and a golden lace drawn through the middle of the head very bright and shining All those of the lesser sort have wings as long or longer than their bodies they have bendes no â—â—ng or prickle in their tail nor bear any sâ—em they are seldome seen in the corn but altogether in meddowes and pastures as I have seen them in France and our Countrey of Britannie I have seen only three kindes very rare i. e. Italian Greek and Affrican they are called Mantes foretellers either because by their coming for they first of all appear they do shew the Spring to be at hand so Anacreon the Poet sang or else they foretell dearth and famine as Caelius the Scholiast of Theocritus have observed Or lastly because it alwaies holds up its sorefeet like hands praying as it were after the manner of their Diviners who in that gesture did pour out their supplications to their Gods Of this Italian Mantis whose figure we do here represent Rondeletius makes mention in his book de Piscibus in these words It hath a long breast slender covered with a hood the head plain the eyes bloudy of a sufficient bignesse the cornicle short it hath six feet like the Locust but the foremost thicker and longer than the other the which because for the most part she holds up together praying-wise it is commonly called with us Preque Dieu the whole body is lean So divine a creature is this esteemed that if a childe aske the way to such a place she will stretch out one of her feet and shew him the right way and seldome or never miss Her tail is two forked armed with two bristly prickles and as she resembleth those Diviners in the elevation of her hands so also in likeness of motion for they do not sport themselves as others do nor leap nor play but walking softly she retains her modesty and shewes forth a kinde of mature gravity Though Pennius affirms that he often saw this kinde at Montpellier yet in his papers he saith that he received the figure of it from the worthy Antonius Saracenus a Physician of Geneva Another species of this Mantis Carolus Clusius sent from Vienna exactly described being brought thither out of Greece which is like unto the former in shape and magnitude but of another colour bestowed on it either by nature or the place where it lives for it hath cornicles of a full yellow the eye of hyacinth colour the wings of a faint yellow the rest of the body of Amethyst only that the feet shanks as also the joynts of them were more hairy and white and the clawes of the fingers bended backward were black Concerning the copulation of Locusts I rather subscribe to Valeriola who hath searched diligently into their nature than to Aristotle himself They couple saith he as I have seen by the male getting upon the female at what time he puts those two prickles that come out of the end of his back into the matrix of the female and so they continue in conjunction very close and for a long time in so much they can scarce with your hands be pulled asunder when once coupled neither by leaping and motion or any other way The female being tickled underneath moveth her womb very busily and applying her self with the bottome thereof to the male doth hold him for a long while sometime with the opening of the matrix sometimes with the shutting or closing of it again augmenting the pleasure of her venery for while the matrix is open the male gets into the bottome or farther end thereof and when it is contracted or closed she is delighted with the affriction and tickling of the womb and the passages thereof Nowâ—here are to be seen two passages in the secret part of the female separated by a kinde of partition and are covered over with a little thick cover which in the outside is black hard and gristly but within somewhat roughish hairy and wrinkled at the bottome of this the matrix appears whitish like that of Women Now the female bringeth forth as Aristot saith the little stem that growes to her tail being stuck in the ground and then layeth all her burden together in the same place not scattering up and down but as it were like a honey comb Hence proceeds a kinde of little worm in the likeness of an egge included in a little earthly thin membrane the which being forced open out come the Locusts and fly abroad But by the favour of so great a Philosopher they lay eggs indeed in the beginning of Autumn though not of the fashion of eggs as I have seen with my eyes and have had them in my hands The which feture is so tender that with the least touch it is bruised to pieces Neither is it laid upon the superficies of the earth but somewhat deeper and in the winter under ground where in the winter they being perfected by concoction in the subsequent year almost at the latter end of Spring they come forth out of the shell or membrane aforesaid wherein they were being little blackish Locusts creeping up and down without either shanks or wings which afterwards in a short time become bigger They bring forth at the latter end of Summer and when they have so done they forthwith die certain little vermine breeding about their necks as it happeneth to the Beetle in the time of their bearing which do
with which is kept wheresoever they are void of black overcast that with a paler yellow and you have their figures painted They live on softer leaves especially on the Tiel-tree Vinula is next in order which is a most delicate Catterpiller and beautiful beyond belief we have found it on the Willow feeding greedily the lips and mouth of it are a pale yellow the eyes are fiery the forehead is purple the feet and the lower body green the tail is forked blacker than grapes the whole body is spotted as with thick and dark red wine which passing from the neck crossway to the very tail a most white line doth wonderfully adorn it The Catterpiller called Porcellus is black brown especially the greater but the lesser hath the circles white Frequently they are found on the leaves of meadow Trifolie and they devour them with wonderfull swiftness Three various colours are chiefly observed the first hath a blewish face and very black eyes the outward skin of the back is grayish much besprinkled with black and yellow spots it is changed into an Aurelia of a bright bay garnished with a white small membrane it loveth Cabbidge and all kinde of Turneps The second hath the head and feet and tail very black being chequered with yellow the chequerings that are painted on them inwardly are distinguished by channels black and gray drawn long-waies by turns It loveth Fennel and Anniseed and Cummin The third is green from white buncht as it goeth along for it hath only six feet on both sides as those before It is changed into an Aurelia set with pricks of a dark colour It consumes Olives The fourth feeds on Dragon-wort and resembles a spotted Viper it goes alwaies with the head upright and leans chiefly on its breast It loves Bul-rushes and plants that bear down and are bred in rivers If you paint the ribs descending of the fifth kinde with old Minium there will be few things in the picture that shall not agree with the truth In the sixth what you see white paint with Ocre Both of them delight in the black Poplar-tree and feed greedily on it The chamferings bred in the seventh must be white from yellow all the rest of the body is of a dark colour and changeth it self into an Aurelia of a light red colour The eighth seems of the colour of ashes waving out of black it makes a case between black and a bright red whence growes a dusty coloured Glow-worm The ninth is various and deservedly thought so the roundles of the incisions are green the horn of the tail is bent backwards and is of a bright blew under which a red coloured spot serves to make it beautiful the middle part of the incisions is ashes colour Lastly an Aurelia is included of a murry colour We found this in the high way it delights in the field Crow-foot The tenth is gray and black for what is here white lay gray upon it and it will represent the creature It is changed into a spiral case of a weak blew colour the roundles being somewhat red and it comes next to the form of a horn fashion periwinkle The smooth Catterpiller comes from the wilde night-shade which the Italians call Belladonna of a green and yellow colour it hath a horn in the forehead as long as ones finger which Cardanus relates that he saw often CHAP. III. Of Catterpillers rough and hairy THose with hairs are the most mischievous of all some are very thick of hair others thinner whereof I here afford you the kindes Amongst those of the thicker hair are walkers up and down such as are upon Nut-tree leaves Pine-trees such as have sayl-yards such as are called Neustriae Pear-eaters such as are upon Nettles Cabbage Hedges feeders on Poplar such as lose their skins such as are amongst Marigolds black and green c. Those that have thinner hairs are Echini dwellers amongst Fennel eaters of bushes half white of which we shall speak in order Pityocampes that is Catterpillers on the Pitch and Pine trees are as thick as a mans little finger and as long as the breadth of three fingers They have eleven incisions between their heads and tails and they have sixteen feet like the rest namely about the head on both sides three on the middle of their bodies on both sides four and at the ends of their tails on both sides one but the first are crooked and small wherewith they try their way the rest are broades and jagged like sawes that they may stick the faster to the boughs The head is like an Ant â—he rest ike common Catterpillers they are rough with hair and encompassed on all sides with straight bristles the hairs bred on their sides are white they shine on their backs the middle part whereof is adorned with spots like to eyes the bristles being shaved off there is a black skin 〈…〉 eath their hairs very slender yet they prick more sharply than a nettle and cause very great pain heat a Feaver pricking unquietness For the poyson enters suddenly without any sense of the wound and is carryed to the parts next the bowels They spin fine webs like to Spiders drawing and disposing their threds with their fore-feet Towards night they go under these as they were tents that they may escape the inconveniencies of cold and storms The matter of this tent is so fast and fine that it is not in danger by the greatest winds nor is it sob'd with rain and it is so spacious that a thousand Catterpillers may be under it They make their nests in the small boughs of the Pine and Pitch trees where they live not solitary as others do but by flocks which way so ever they bend their course they spin and carry their thred for the web along with them and at break of day if it be but fair weather the great ones accompany the lesser by troops and having made the trees void of leaves for they consume them all they labour hard in weaving Only these plagues of the Pine and Pitch trees do not meddle with other Cone Apple trees In Mount Athos the woods of Trent and in the vallies beyond the Alps they abound very much by reason of plenty of leaves for their nourishment as Matthiolus witnesseth They are truly most venomous creatures whether you touch them outwardly with your hands or they be given inwardly They were of old esteemed so certainly to be poyson that Vlpian interpreting the Cornelian Law concerning private murderers set down amongst them to be punished those that give a Pine Catterpiller to drink Sect. Alium ff ad leg Corn. de sic When one hath swallowed a Pine Catterpiller the pain grievously afflicts both the mouth and palat the tongue belly and stomach are greatly inflamed by the corroding poyson also a wonderful pain vexeth them though at first they seemed only to feel a pleasant kinde of tickling great heat followeth loathing of meat and a perpetual desire
to vomit but ineffectual At length if it be not helped they burn the body and make the stomach crusty almost like to Arsenick Diosc Aetius Plin. Cels Gal. also 11. simpl c. 5. and Avic sos cap. 25. Hence it is that Aetius and Aegineta held it dangerous to set the table for meat under the Pine-tree or for to stay there lest perhaps by the reak of the meat or vapour of the broth or by noise of men these Pine Catterpillers should be moved and fall down upon the meat or should let fall their seeds that are as deadly as themselves They that are hurt by these must use the remedies against Cantharides for the same means will cure them but properly oyl made of Quinces called melinum and oyl Olive is to be drank twice or thrice to cause vomit as Dioscorides from Aetius hath prescribed They are bred or rather regenerated as Vine-fretters are from Autumnal seed left in the web in certain bladders or from the Vine-fretters themselves corrupted as Scaliger thought Now we proceed to walkers about We call those walkers who have no certain houses or food wherefore they do something superstitiously wander like pilgrims and like to Mice they alwaies feed on others meat wherefore the English call them Palmer-worms namely for their wandring life for they dwell no where though by reason of their hair they are called Bear-worms They will not be tied to any kinde of flowers or leaves but they pass on boldly and taste of all plants and trees and feed where they please First those white spots which we see in their sides must be such really the whole body is black all the inward hairs must be somewhat yellow but all the uppermost on the back must be hoary except those three ranks that are bred in the neck near the head for they have the same colour with the hairs of the belly Out of the Aurelia of this comes forth the Butterfly which you see here whose colour figure and nature we described in the Book before The second if you make the neck and belly and the hair there growing yellow you need do no more The cover of it seems dusky the eggs are pale We explained the Butterfly that growes from thence in the former Book The third is the whole body and hair dusky yellow but that the spots on each side being obliquely made in each incision lie hid and the head being of a light red is adorned with a certain white fork The fourth hath his belly and lower hairs dusky the back and upper hairs are yellow from dusky a double forked line in the face resembles the colour of whey or milk mingled with water The fifth hath a bright bay colour in the face the sides of the belly hoary a body various with small yellowish spots and above these with black yellow hairs come forth like small rags they are sharp and growing more sharp pointed from the middle it hurts much the neighbouring herbs and the corn The sixth is a brown colour'd if the incisions were not died with black and white spots here and there the hairs are bred above and beneath and set after a saw fashion they are very rough and hard but they are of the colour of the body The seventh hath a black skin yet it hath hairs something of a dirty colour I use to call it the Pensill because on both sides of the forehead and also in the rump a soft pensil breaks forth of a crow-black colour but those wedge fashioned eminences that you see in the back are white as milk at the root otherwise somewhat black The eighth holds forth a Mouse colour on whose back those seven joynts resemble it The ninth is a strange and rare colour for all the incisions are painted with various colours one from another yet mingled one with another which a silver stud doth adorn severally one by one The tenth is amongst the sports of wanton nature not less elegant that it is rare being streaked with black green blew yellow ridges and smooth strings which some golden spots do wonderfully illustrate it hath very soft hair of an admirable and most pleasing freshness it hath a purple cover fortified with a small membrane Suppose the white incisions of the eleventh to be green as Leeks and paint the skin and hairs half green The Nut-tree Catterpillar is of a pale green except three black spots between the joynts and that horn at the end of the back and growing as it were on the remp which receives a fresh rose colour It especially 〈…〉 s on the leaves of the Hazel-nut whence we call it Corylaria I saw two kinde of them one was a full the other a paler green The manifold delicacy of Nature shines forth in these to which though it giveth them the face of a Moor or Aegyptian yet it affords them a garment that is of changeable colours shining in divers works and real art in the forehead the hairs are knit as into knotty locks and resemble the sail-yard the like are found in the extremity of their backs The skin is like the rain-bow and shines in circles deeply died with purple which nature hath fastned to the sides like broad studs the hairs bred in the skin shine like the Sun and dazle our eyes in a clear day We received two Neustriae out of Normandy the first had a face of a blew colour and the body ridged with white red and gray streaks the hairs are comely with a golden shining colour The lesser rolled together is like an Urchin the head is cole-black the body is variously spotted with little blew spots the hairs resemble a Saffron lustre This corrupts the buds of the peat tree having a black s 〈…〉 dged face the body is adorned with some black red white ridges in the middle as it were of the shoulders and to the end almost of the back little swellings or bunches arise of black and blew colour sprinkled with white spots The Eggs from whence they breed are a bright bay colour which is also the colour of the Aurelia and of the hair We saw another of the same kinde but only it had a bunch on the back We call that half white which is by nature yellow from the head to half the back and the rest white as a Lilly The belly is yellow and ash-coloured adorned with studs and checquered in the middle If you touch the feet of the Nettle Catterpiller lightly with a fading yellow the figure will differ little from the natural it hath hard upright hairs growing like thorns they wound with a small touch and at first they cause a pleasant itching but venomous but after that a pain hard to be endured Some maintain that it is more venomous than the Pine-tree Catterpiller On a Cabbage a Catterpiller breeds with a bright blew head his body is marked with two yellow branches on both sides between which a grayish plat as it were seems to be spotted with
nor increaseth for Dormice sleep all the Winter and eat nothing The life of it doth resemble that sleep which is partly waking wherein men are not properly awake nor yet asleep but are alive and move a little But I conjecture that the Philosopher wrote this that he might confirm that Axiome of his to credulous posterity that all Insects either lay egges or little Worms His words are these Insects first breed Worms but that which is called Chrysallis is an Egge and afterwards from this is bred a living Creature that at the third changing hath the end of its generation Yet it is manifest enough by what I said before that an Aurelia is no Egge and it ought not to be called a generation but a transmutation of a Caterpillar into this and of this into a Butterflie I say this for that purpose that such as adore Aristotle for a God may remember that he was but a man and that he was subject to humane errors There are two kindes of Aurelias that I have seen some are downy and others smooth both are of divers colours and sometimes they are Gold coloured which are the true Chrysallides and others that are but bastard ones are without any colour of Gold They have their Original from the death of the Catterpillars which as they do waste by degrees in certain dayes so by degrees their covering grows continually more hard and changeth into an Aurelia These again the next Spring or Autumn by degrees losing their life a Butterflie comes forth of them that is bred by the like metamorphosis What use they serve for for the good of man kinde I am wholly ignorant of I know well enough how much they perplexed Aristotles wit by their wonderfull transmutation and they set forth to us the boundlesse power of Almighty God George Agricola only propounds to us the Teredo without feet which from the brasen colour of it he call Kupter-worm It creeps like a Serpent saith he because it wants wings and feet It is as thick as a small Goose quill and it is as long as a Scolopendra It is round and breeds under rotten wood and sometimes found hard by the Scolopendra or long Ear-wig You may easily finde the figure of it placed amongst the Scolopendrae CHAP. XXXVII Of Water Insects without feet and first of the Shrimp or Squilla WEE said before that all water Insects were with feet or without feet Some of those that have feet swim with six feet as the Lobster the Shrimp the lake Scorpion the Evet and the Sea-lowse others with four feet some with more We shal treat of them severally The Squilla an Insect differs but little from the fish Squilla but that it hath the sail-yards much shorter and a more red colour or rather a more earthly colour Some of these are covered with a thin shell and some again are smooth and naked Those with shells live chiefly in small Brooks and stick to the roots of Reeds or water-flags They are of a yellowish colour and sometimes of a white or Ash-colour They go only with six feet the rest that are joyned to them serve in stead of fins The naked ones are either soft or hard The soft ones are represented well e 〈…〉 ough by this figure only suppose their heads to be of a bright Bay colour and their body died with a dark Ash-colour All those that are covered with a hard crust are made with joynts but some have round joynts others other fashions The form of the round joynted is exactly represented here if you suppose him to be easily dyed with a lighter red And such is the colour of the first and second that are not round joynted The third kinde is black upon the back and with a brown belly but they are all with a forked mouth and that will hold fast what is applyed to it The fourth kinde moves it self with the three former feet and useth the rest that hang by in stead of Oares The neck of it and the sailyards and the nippers are of a watry red colour the body is brownish or more Ash coloured The fifth hath a very black head and the body like to a Pomegranate shell The sixth seems to be cruel and in the same form you see it of an Ash-colour All of them have 〈…〉 ard eyes and black covered over with a membrane shining like unto glasse which move continually almost like to the ears of four-footed beasts They leap quickly one upon the other as the Fishes Squillae doe in coupling and when they grow bold and have liberty they fill the Females with young The time when they are ready for this is signified by a gentle biting The Female takes hold with her mouth and what she layes hold on she kills and gives part of it to her companion for they couple at the mouth as Crabs and Lobsters doe But what use they serve for in physick I cannot finde either in writers or from Empiricks who either knew not these Squillae or thought them not worthy to say any thing of them Yet this is certain that in April and May there is no better bait to catch Fish with CHAP. XXXVIII Of the Locust Scorpion Notonectum the Grashopper the Wasp the forked Claw the Newt the little Heart and the Lowse all Water-Insects THE Insect-Locust is like the Lobster for that cannot be called either flesh or fish you see the figure of it it is of a pale green colour I have seen three kindes of Lake Scorpions and I have them by me the first is somewhat black the other two are like to white sand we call some Insects of the water Notonâ—cta which do not swim upon their bellies as the rest do but upon their backs from whence it is probable that men learned the art of swimming upon their backs also Some of these have eyes shoulders and bodies all black some are green some are fiery coloured and some pitch coloured For you shall seldom see two of them of the same colour nature hath so variously sported her self in adorning them Water-Grashoppers hold the forâ—h described but their eyes are extreme black and their bodies are ash coloured The Wasp hath a brownish body all over except the black eyes The Forked Claw hath almost the same colour but it is more full it seems to want eyes but it hath them hid within whereby it both sees and perceives the object The Lizard is of divers colours and delights in catching Fish it is common about the British shores where it lyeth in wait to catch Fish The Corculus hath the just fashion of a heart the feet and head being taken away it hath very little black eyes and six legs of the same colour each with two clawes The Sea-Lowse is an Insect that is an enemy to all kinde of Whales which by biting and tickling it puts into such a rage that they are forced to run upon the sand and hasten to dry land I
made of Hony Water and Vinegar to the value or quantity of three cruces or cups full is commended for an excellent cure and medicine for those which are troubled and grieved with that pestiferous and deadly disease called the Falling-sickness otherwise Saint Johns Evil. There is an excellent remedy for those which are troubled in the voiding of their water which is this To take the Ring-worms or Tetters which do grow upon both the legs of a Mule above their knees and which do stick thereupon in the manner of a dryed thick skin and to burn or parch them and afterwards to put or place them upon him which is troubled with the Strangury or cannot void his water but by drops-meal so that there be great care had to cover close with cloven or clefted cloaths or garments the suffumigation thereof lest that the smell or fume do fade and void away and this being so used will be very effectual for the curing and driving away of the aforesaid disease The hairs of a Mule and an Ass being mingled together and dryed and put into some certain perfume and so given to any one to drink which is troubled with the Falling-sickness will presently expel and drive it quite away In the place or part of mans body wherein a male or female Mule shall bite Ponzettus affirmeth there will presently arise and grow small pushes or little blisters which are always full of red and pale humors and filthy corruption which can almost be healed and cured by no salve potion or medicine by any means applyed thereunto There are some also which do suppose the biting of Mules to be poyson for truly there doth not only follow those aforesaid pushes and biles but also an extream and almost indurable inflammation and burning through all the parts of the body which doth greatly distemperate and vex the same But it is affirmed by others that the biting of Mules is to be cured after the same manner as the biting of a Cat which is thus First to wash and clarifie the wound or bitings where the corruption is with Vinegar mingled with Oyl of Roses and then to take Peny-royal or the herb called Neppe and boil it and stroke or rub the wound very softly with it and it will in time wholly cure it And thus much shall suffice at this time concerning the cures and medicines of Mules Of the Neades Neides or Naides HEraclides Coelius Volaterranus and Euphorion do all write that once the Isle of Sa 〈…〉 was a Desert place and that there were in it certain Beasts called Neades whose voyce was so terrible that they shook the earth therewith and from those strange and great voyces came the vulgar Greek proverb Meizoon mia toon Neaedbon maius una Neadum That is One of the Neades was a great wonder for it was used in ostentation to shew that there was nothing in the whole world comparable to their vast and huge quantity Of the parts of these Beasts there is no memory but only in Suidas and Aelianus who affirm that their bones were to be seen in their days And this title I thought good to insert into this History leaving the Reader to consider whether he will take them for Elephants or for any other greater Beast for my opinion if it be desired I think them rather if there ever were any such that they were Elephants of greater stature then ever since were seen and not any generation of Beasts now lost and utterly perished Of the OUNCE the description whereof was taken by Doctor Cay in England THere is in Italy a Beast called Alph 〈…〉 which many in Italy France and Germany 〈◊〉 〈…〉 a and some Vnzia from whence Albertus and Isidorus make the 〈…〉 ine word V 〈…〉 and I take it to be the same Beast which is called L 〈…〉 um and for the description of it I can follow no better Author then Doctor Cay who describeth it in this fashion The Ounce saith he is a most cruel Beast of the quantity of a village or mastiffe Dog having his face and ears like to a Lions his body tail feet and nails like a Cats of a very terrible Aspect his teeth so strong and sharp that he can even cut Wood in sunder with them he hath also in his nails so great strength that he only fighteth with them and useth them for his greatest defence The colour of the upper parts of his body being like whitish Oak the lower being of the colour of ashes being every where mixed with a black and frequent spot but the tail more black then the rest of his body and as it were obscured with a greater spot then the residue His ears within are pale without any blackness without black without any paleness if you do but take away one dark and yellow spot in the midst thereof which is made of a double skin rising meeting in the top of the ear that is to say that which ariseth from the outward part of the jaw on the one side and cometh from the upper part of the head on the other side and the same may be easily seen and separated in the head being dryed The rest of the head is spotted all over with a most frequent and black spot as the rest of the body except in that part which is betwixt the nose and the eyes wherein there are none unless only two and they very small even as all the rest are lesser then the rest in the extream and lowest parts the spots which are in the upper parts of the thighs and in the tail are blacker and more singular but framed in the sides with such an order as if all the spots should seem to be made of four There is no order in the spots except in the upper lip where there are five rows or orders In the first and uppermost two which are severed in the second six being joyned in that manner as if they should seem to be in one line These two orders are free and not mingled amongst themselves In the the third order there are eight joyned together but with the fourth where it endeth they are mixed together The fourth and fifth in their beginning which they have to the nose being separated with a very little difference do forthwith joyn themselves and run together through all the upper lip and do not make a spot through all the same but a broad line In the Beast being dead the spots do so stand as I suppose for the contraction of the skin In the Beast being alive those spots do seem separated every one in their own orders In the very middle between the lower lip although they do keep the quantity do not observe the order The nose is blackish a line being softly led through the length and only through the top of the outside thereof The eyes are gray the former teeth are only six not very unlike to mens teeth except those which are
of the Hebrews Deborah the Arabians term them Albara N 〈…〉 halea and Zâ—har the Illyrians and Sclavonians Wezilla the Italians Ape Api Vna sticha Mosâ—atellâ— Ape or Scoppa Pecchi the Spaniards Abeia Frenchmen Mousches au miel the Germans Ee 〈…〉 The Flemings Bie the Polonians Pzizota the Irish men Camilii In Wales a Bee is called Gwenâ—v Amongst the Grecians they have purchased sundry names according to the diversity of Nations Countries and places but the most vulgar name is Melissa and in Hesiodus Meliâ— Othersome call a Bee Plastis á fingendo of framing Some again Anthedon and of their colour 〈…〉 hai Of their Offices and charge Egemones ab imperando from governing Sirenes à suavi cantu from their sweet voyce The Latines call them by one general name Apis and Apesd Varro sometimes terms th 〈…〉 Aveâ— but very improperly for they might better be named Volucres not Aves So much for their names 〈…〉 ow to the de 〈…〉 Bees even by nature are much different for some are more domestical and tame and other again are altogether wilde uplandish and agrestial Those former are much delighted with the familiar friendship custom and company of men but these can in no wife brook or endure them but rather keep their trade of Honey-making in old trees caves holes and in the ruders and rubbish of old walls and houses Of tame Bees again some of them live in pleasant and delightful Gardens and abounding with all sweet senting and odoriferous plants and herbs and these are great soft sat and big bellyed Others again there be of them that live in Towns and Villages whose study and labour is to gather Honey from such plants as come next to hand and which grow farther off and these are lesser in proportion of body rough and more unpleasant in handling but in labour industry wit and cunning far surpassing the former Of both sorts of these some have stings as all true Bees have others again are without a sting as counterfeit and bastardly Bees which even like the idle sluggish lither and ravenous cloystered Monks thrice worse then theeves you shall see to be more gorbellied have larger throats and bigger bodies yet neither excellent or markable either for any good behaviour and conditions or gifts of the minde Men call these unprofitable cattle and good for nothing Fuci that is Drones either because they would seem to be labourers when indeed they are not or because that under the colour and pretence of labour for you shall sometime have them to carry wax and to be very bufie in forming and making Honey-combes they may eat up all the Honey These Drones are of a more blackish colour some-what shining and are easily known by the greatnesse of their bodies Besides some Bees are descended of the Kingly race and born of the bloud Royal whereof Aristotle maketh two sorts a yellow kinde which is the more noble and the black garnished with divers colours Some make three Kings differing in colour as black red and divers coloured Menecrates saith that those who are of sundry colours are the worser but in case they have diversity of colour with some blacknesse they are esteemed the better He that is elected Monarch Caesar and Captain General of the whole swarm is ever of a tall personable and heroical stature being twice so high as the rest his wings shorter his legs straight brawny and strong his gate pace and manner of waâ—â—ing is more lofty stately and upright of a venerable countenance and in his fore-head there is a certain red spot or mark with a Diadem for he far differeth from the popular and inferiour sort in his comelinesse beauty and honour The Prince of Philosophers confoundeth the sex of Bees but the greatest company of learned Writers do distinguish them whereof they make the feminine sort to be the greater Others again will have them the lesser with a sting but the sounder sort in my judgement will neither know nor acknowledge any other males besides their Dulles and Princes who are more able and handsome greater and stronger then any of the rest who stay ever at home and very seldom unlesse with the whole Swarm they stir out of doors as those whom nature had pointed out to be the fittest to be stander-bearers and to carry ancients in the camp of Venus and ever to be ready at the elbows of their loves to do them right Experience teaching us that these do sit on Egges and after the manner of birds do carefully cherish and make much of their young after the thin membrane or skin wherein they are enclosed is broken The difference of their age is known by the form state and habit of their bodies For the young Bees have very thin and trembling wings but they that are a year old as they that are two or three years of age are very trim gay bright-shining and in very good plight and liking of the colour of Oyl But those that have reached to seaven years have layed away all their flatness and smoothness neither can any man afterwards either by their figure and quality of their bodies or skins judge or discern certainly their age as we say by experience in Horses For the elder sort of them are rough hard thin and lean scrags starvelings loathsome to touch and to look upon somewhat long nothing but skin and bone yet very notorious and goodly to see to in regard of their gravity hoariness and anciency But as they be in form and shape nothing so excellent so yet in experience and industry they far out-strip the younger sort as those whom time hath made more learned and length of days joyned with use hath sufficiently instructed and brought up in the Art or trade of Honey-making The place likewise altereth one whiles their form and sometimes again their nature as their sex and age do both For in the Islands of Molucca there be Bees very like to winged Pismires but somewhat lesser then the greater Bees as Maximilian Transilvonus in an Epistle of his written to the Bishop of Salspurge at large relateth it Andrew Thevet in his book that he wrote of the New-found World Chap. 51. amongst other matters reporteth that he did see a company of flies or Honey-bees about a tree named Vhebehason which then was green with the which these Honey-bees do live and nourish themselves of the which trees there were a great number in a hole that was in a tree wherein they made Honey and Wax There is two kindes of the Honey-bees one kinde are as great as ours the which cometh not only but of good smelling flowers also their Honey is very good but their Wax not so yellow as ours There is another kinde half so great as the other their Honey is better then the other and the wilde men name them Hira They live not with the others food which to my judgement maketh their Wax to be as black as
vessels for tents in the camp to keep out rain for bed-ticks that the feathers fly not out to joyn pipes made of reeds as Ovid sang concerning the shepherds of old And with the Reed wâ—ll waxed they play'd and sang Also the most excellent Painters painted with wax as Pliny reports and they adorned ships with it This kinde of painting though it were not hurt by salt nor by the sun nor by the wind yet it was lost we know not how when Apelles Protogenes and Zeuxis died Also the Ancients were wont to smeer over their writing tables with wax before that paper was invented as Juvenal describes it And the younger Pliny in his Epistle to Trajan I sate by the nets there was no hunting pole or lance by me but a style and writing tables I did meditate and set down some things that though I should have my hands empty my writing tables might be full Hence proceeded those old forms of speaking In the first second third or last wax For Suetonius proves that the Romans writ their Testaments in wax in the life of Caesar in these words He made Q. Pedius his heir to the last farthing the rest he placed in the bottom of the wax that is in the last part of his will Nor is the use of sealing wax little whereby we seal letters and instruments Of this there are four principal kindes the Punick or white the red or Indian the black or American the yellow or European The Punick is made thus The yellow wax is often laid in the open air then they boyl it in sea-water adding Nitre to it then with skimmers they take off the flower of the wax and they powr â—t into a vessel that hath a little cold water in it then they boyl it apart in sea-water then they cool the vessel This is done thrice and they then dry it on a bul-rush hurdle by day and by night in the open air for this makes it white the honey being drawn forth by the Sun and the yellow colour breathed forth when it is dryed they melt it when it is melted they cover it with a thin cloth and set it in the sun after it hath stood in the sun it becomes exceeding white being boyled once more Wax is made white otherwise but this is the most proper for medicaments Pliny I see that the Greeks speak of is no other than which Pliny calls the Punick wax Aetius speaks of white wax in the Vnguent Martiatum and Paulus speaks of it also Black wax is either natural as in the Molucco Islands and many parts of America it is gathered by the Bees themselves as we read in Thevet and in the Centuries of Navigations or artificial adding the ashes of paper Red wax or like Minium of India is made with mingling Anchusa or Cinnaber There is another kinde of red wax hard like a stone but easie to break the Merchants think their letters sealed with this to be very sure yet there are some knaves so cunning that they will open them and shut them again not hurting them that no man can possibly discern it which art though a chief Impostor shewed to Pennius when he was at Paris yet he was too honest to reveal it to this mischievous age The European honey is of the natural colour that is yellow But the colour and variety of things hath so bewitched us that we are not content with natural colours but we must imitate the Punick Indian American waxes and above those we must have green dark light blew wax made of Verdigrease and other paints and some Turpentine Propolis the Arabians call Kur the Greeks call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Germans Vorstotz neben Wachs Wachs winden stop Wachs the Helvetians if I mistake not Bet and Biâ—â—eâ— trost the English Hive-dross the Spaniards El vetun de las colmenas Scribanius takes it for Virgins wax Sylvatieus falsly takes it for the dregs of the Hives Andreas Bellunensis calls it the foulness of the walls and sayes that some abuse it for Bdellium Some maintain that Propolis drops from trees others say it is the first comb It is indeed a thicker yellowish matter sweet sented like to Storax and dustie like Mastick like to wax but not yet made wax whereby all passages are stopt against cold and rain The third sort is that black matter and sharp sented which Aristotle calls Mitys Gaza and Pliny call Commosis the dregs of wax the second is called Pissoceros as you would say a matter made of pitch and wax The third Propolis is of a middle nature between these two supporters and wax laid very thick at the mouthes of the Hives chiefly in summer and therefore it is called Propolis as you youl l say belonging to the suburbs Because the Bees build with it at the doors before the Hive Propolis saith Cordus out of Pliny perhaps is some rosin gum growing upon the budding places of trees which Bees gather and hang about the entrances of their Hives to stop all chinks in winter against the cold There are four sorts of it The first is collected only out of the black Poppy which they call Aegyrina that is yellow it is soft to be touched and sticks like bird-lime it smels sweet and comfortable to the head causeth rest and is like Storax it tastes like Poplar buds The second is gathered from the Birch-treâ— and is of a colour between a yellow ash and green it is soft and ductil also in handling The third the Bees make out of the gum of the Poplar tree called Alpina but it is but seldom and only in those places where no other Poplar tree or Birch abounds but only that is called Alpina The fourth or mingled is gathered and confounded from all these trees so that it hath a mixt colour sent â—avour and consistence Cordus saith almost so much now let us hear Pliny Propolis is a kinde of middle substance between honey and wax rather between wax and Pissoceros and it seems to be gum collected by the Bees to stop up their hives Rondoletius saith it hath a thick substance and the smell of leaven Pliny saith it smels so strong that some use it for Galbanum But in the spring gathering time of honey this part that shuts their cells may be separated of which Politianus writes thus That the Bee laies a white foundation of his various coloured wax So that Propolis seems to be a thick foundation for the wax But it is now out of use nor can any man finde pure Propolis For most Bee-masters taking out the Hives when all the honey is run forth whatsoever is in the combs they mingle together and keep none pure by it self nor is that wax which Avicen calls black Mum any thing but the dregs of the combs or else some sediment that sinks to the bottom of the water after the wax is boyled and this is now Propolis but Propolis is not pure but some mingled matter The nature of
a sort of creatures of a greater growth very like the Bees and accordingly he placeth them in the rank of herding or swarming creatures They suffer egregiously of the whole swarm many times not only for their sloth and rapacity but for that wanting a sting they seem effeminate and not able to make any opposition Plin. l. 11. c. 17. describeth them thus The Drone is an imperfect Bee without a sting and begotten then after all when the Bee is decayed with labour not being able to labour any longer Like as men past their labour and stricken in age beget of women when they have well-nigh left teeming through age and weakness feeble children uncapable of procreation little better then eunuchs so it may not seem strange how these Drones are too weak and impotent being begotten of the Bees when they are exhausted with age and labour insomuch that they are fit neither to propagate their one species nor to take pains as the other do Which is the reason why the Bees so lord it over them for they put them first forth to work if they loyter they punish them without mercy For in the moneth of June two or three especially the younger fry drag out one Drone by himself alone buffet him with their wings gore him with their stings if he resist them they cast him down from the form upon the ground and at length when they have made him weary of his life for anguish they make an end of him and kill him this I beheld with mine eyes not without exceeding admiration and delight Sometimes the Drones being banisht from the Hive are fain to remain without doors not daring to enter Now for three reasons especially thereunto moving the Bees do shut out the Drones either when their number is above measure increased or when there is not room enough left for the Bees to work in or else when their honey fails and they are straightned for want of provision And as they bear a deadly hatred against the Drones so neither will they hurt any man if with his naked hands he shall take the Drones and cast them forth no although they be in fight The Drones if the King be alive as some affirm are begotten in a place by themselves But if the King be dead they are begotten of the Bees in their cells and those are a great deal lustier than the other in which regard they are said to have a sting in their souls although they are allowed none in their bodies by nature ' Thus Aelian lib. 1. de Animal Hist c. 10. The Drone which is bred amongst the Bees lies hid all day between the honey cells but in the night when he observes that the Bees are gone to their rest and are fast asleep he sets upon their works and preys upon their Hives This assoon as they understand for that most of the Bees being weary with labour fall asleep and some few watch when they espy the thief they moderately and gently chastise him crop his wings thrust him out from thence and banish him But not content with this punishment whereby to amend his fault being naturally possest with two ill qualities idleness and luxury he hides himself amongst the combs But assoon as the Bees are gone forth to pasture presently he falls upon the works doth as much as in him lies glâ—â—s himself with honey and utterly ransacks the sweet treasury of the Bees They coming home again from feeding as soon as they meet with him no more favour him as before with easie stripes or as if they were about only to banish him again but setting upon him with their stings they wound the felon and no more satisfie themselves with chiding of him but then he payes for his voracity and gluttony with no lesse than his life This the Bee-masters say and perswade me that it is true Drones come forth without a King the Bees never For they alwaies descend from Kings There are that affirm that the young Drones are brought thither from other places from the flowers of honey-suckles or of the olive or â—eed But this opinion is infirm and doth not stand with reason Aristotle affirms that the great store both of Drones and Theeves are sprung of the longer and slender kinde of Bees which doubtlesse he was informed of by the ancient Philosophers or by Bee-keepers and Honey-masters of his time Some likewise say they are ingendred of putrefaction as of Mules so Isidore of Asses so Cardane of Horses so Plutarch and Servius Others will have them to be the issue of Bees by a certain degeneration when they have lost their stings for then they become Drones nor are observed to gather any honey and being as it were gelt of their natural strength they neither do harm or good Others on the contrary say that the Bees are bred of the Drones because long experience hath taught that as the number of Drones aboundeth by so much every year is the number of the Swarms greater But that in my apprehension is rather a feigned than a solid reason for therefore are there not as some seasonable years it comes to passe more Swarmes of Bees because more Drones are bred but rather on the contrary because the increase of Bees is more in regard of the clemency of the heavens and the plenty of mellifluous dews so from the abundance of superfluous moisture proceed the greater store of Drones as the Philosopher hath well collected Or if we grant them this that the more the Drones are every year so the more Bees yet nothstanding we ought not to conclude from thence that the Bees should derive their original of being to the Drones but rather are beholding and indebted to them for their conservation whilest they at the time of sitting and incubation by their company do much further the procreation of the Bees the throng of them to use the words of Pliny exceedingly encreasing the vegetative heat by which they are sooner hatched up There are that divide the Drones into Male and Female and will have them to propagate their species by way of copulation although as Athenaeus writes neither Drone nor Bee were ever seen to couple together Yet forasmuch as Wasps and Bumble Bees and all other Hiveborn Insects are seen sometime though very seldome to couple I see no reason why the modesty of the Bee and of the Drone whereby they abandon publick scortation and venery should debar them of the private use of copulation For they as the chaster sort of men are wont do it privately and do naturally detest the impudence of those that publickly prostitute themselves in the day time and when all eyes are upon them We have told you before in the generation of Bees that some would make the Bees the male and the Drones the female But when as about the time of making their honey they do so sharply punish them after they have cast them out of their Hives and
kill them such violence which if used to their mothers would much blemish the virtues of the Bees I scarse think they are females Of what use then are they of in the Hives is the Drone altogether unprofitable good for nothing idle without sting fit for no service no way helpful to the publick More than that Virgil himself chants it to that effect Immunisque sedens aliena ad pabula fucus The Drone sits free feeding on others food Where Festus takes the word in that sense for a slothful idle unprofitable creature void of all imployment unlesse it be that of theeves and robbers who take such a course that either they will live by the sweat of other mens browes or else they will disturb the whole Kingdom Such like Hesiod makes women to be when he compares them to Drones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is I interpret it in Latine thus Qui segnes resident contectis aedibus atque Sudorem alterius proprium furantur in alvum Or in English thus Who sit at home and to work have no will With others sweat they do their bellies fill But more creditable Authors propound divers uses of Drones for if there be but a few of them amongst the Bees they make them more diligent and careful in their businesse not by their example for they live perpetually idle but because they take the more pains in making honey that they may be able to continue their liberality to strangers They discover also signs whereby to know when the honey is come to maturity for when they have perfected their honey then they kill them in abundance lest they should as their custome is rob them of it in the night for as Aelian saith the Drone all the day lies quietly in the honey cells but in the night when he perceives that the Bees are in their dead sleep he sets upon their works and destroies their combs But yet if Barthâ—lomaeus deceive us not they are not unbusied neither but they build houses for the Kings large and magnificent in the top and middle part of the Hive very finely covered over They are therefore idle to say say with Aristotle in regard of making honey or gathering dew but in regard of their Architecture so they are workmen For as the Bees make the combs of the Drones hard by the Kings Court so under the same consideration the Drones build the Kings houses which is the reason why they and their young ones if they have any are sustained by the Bees The cells of the Drones now grown up according to the bulk of their bodies are larger but their combs lesse for the Bees built these but those the made themselves because it is not fitting that the same proportion of food should be allowed to hindes and hired servants as to the childâ—en or masters of the family Tzetzes in his elegant Poem and other of the Greek Poets make them to be the Bees cellarmen or water-bearers and do assign unto them a most kindly heat whereby they are said to hatch the young Bees and make them thrive In like manner Columella the Drones do very much help to breed the young Bees by sitting upon those seeds out of which they are made And theâ—efore they are more familiarly admitted to the nursery to bring up and cherish the young bâ—ood which when they have done afterwards they are thrust out of doors And Pliny also in his 11. Book They do not assist the Bees in their Architecture only but also in cherishing their young the multitude of them causing heat and warmth the which the greater it is unlesse the honey chance to fail in the mean time the more the swarmes of Bees are increased To conclude unlesse they had been for some great use for the Bees Almighty God had never housed them under one roof nor made them as it were free Denisons of the same City Neither would the Bees lay hands on them at all as enemies of the State but when their servile multitude doth increase and they take up offensive arms or scarcity of provision were to be suddenly expected in which tempest of affairs who would not rather judge that the Carpenter should be dismissed than the Ploughman especially when without him by reason of want of victuals we may hazard our lives but the other we may be without for a time without prejudice to our lives and our selves if need requires are able to build habitations every one for himself Now as these being but a competent number of them are very profitable to the Bees so if they be over many Plato not without cause terms them morbum alvearium the Pest or Plague of the Hive in the 8. book of the Common-wealth where you may see a most elegant comparison between Acolastus and the Drone both because they waste the provision of the labouring Bees as also with their too much heat stifle them This inconvenience the Author of the Geoponicks doth thus remedy take the covers of the Hives and sprinkle them on the inside over night with water and you shall finde them betimes in the morning when you take off the cover of the Hives again all over covered with the Drones for when their bellies are full of honey they are very thirsty and are mightily perplext with an intolerable desire of water so that they cling fast to the lid of the Hive and it is an easie matter to put them all to death or if you will rather to take away the greatest part of them But if you take away the young ones and all that are not yet come to have wings and pluck off their heads casting the bodies in again to the other Bees you shall offer to them a very dainty dish Moreover also if you shall take the Drone and crop off his wings and cast it back into the Hive he will if we may credit Pliny pull ofâ— all the wings of the rest lib. 21. c. 11. or rather the Bees themselves will devour the wings of the rest of the Drones that are left For so saith Aristot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is not probable that either the Bees should crop one the others wings or that the Drones should so far adventure or be able to offer such violence to the Bees so that as Pliny was mistaken in reading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so also they do not a little speak by guesse who refer the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rest to the Bees and not to the Drones But what the dreaming of Drones doth portend what use they may be of in the way of Hieroglyphicks let Apomasaris out of the Schools of the Persians and Aegyptians declare It shall abundantly satisfie for what we intended to speak of them to shew their true use true nature generation degeneration description and name But as for what belongs to Emblemes and Hieroglyphicks and precepts for Manners
snout being long slender and rolled up together are somewhat yellow 2. The second appears blue and green it hath a little body the feet and cornicles blackish 3. The third hath the shoulders and wings greenish of the colour of leek blades the body dunnish the outmost wings are guarded with a guard set with white and dun spots it hath a very little head the feet and the cornicles ash-colour Moreover there are found in houses a certain sort of little silver coloured Phalens marked with black spots which fly to the candles called Mothes in English which eat linnen and woollen clothes and lay eggs of which come Moths and of the Moths again these Phalens they are said to come first of all from rose leaves and other herbs putrefying Three others I have observed in pastures and medowes The first whereof hath the outer wings black each of them marked with 5 red spots like bloud the innermost wings are all over red the body dun the head short cornicles and the feet blackish The second is all alike only that it hath but four red spots in the outmost wings and hath a more slender body The third is almost of the like shape too but the cornicles are a great deal longer and the red spots seattered after another manner for there appear about the edges of the wings only two red bloud-like spots but from the rising of the wings two spots drawn at length And thus much may suffice to be spoken of the night Butterflies or Phalens passe we on now to the day Butterflies The Day Butterflies are to be described after such a sort that all men may see the fruitfulnesse and elegancy of Nature in this behalf and admire For she hath not lesse played her part or wrought hard rather in the variety of these their colours attire rich apparel roundles knots studs borders squares fringes decking painting making them then she had done in the Phalens 1. The first Day-Butterfly being the greatest of all for the most part all yellowish those places and parts excepted which are here blacked with inke Moreover the roundles of the inner wings are sky-colour insomuch that you would think they were set with Saphire stones the eyes are like the Chrysolite the bignesse and form is so exactly set forth in the figure that there needs no more to be said of it 2. The second differs very little from the first but in bignesse it hath neverthelesse very black eyes longer cornicles where you see the color white there suppose it yellow except it be those great eyes at the end of the innermost wings the apple whereof must be made flame-colour but the semicircle bloud-red 3. The third not much unlike in colour but that the extuberances and the outmost border of the innermost wings is sky or woad-colour as also those three taches which you see painted under the hollow part of them 4. The fourth may be said to be the Queen or chief of all for in the uttermost part of the wings as it were four Adamants glistering in a beazil of Hyacinth do shew wonderful rich yea almost dazle the Hyacinth and Adamant themselves for they shine curiously like stars and do cast about them sparks of the colour of the Rain-bow by these marks it is so known that it would be needless to describe the rest of the body though painted with variety of colours 5. The head feet cornicles are of bloud-red but the eyes purple the back black and blue the belly yellowish the wings at the basis of a bright yellow and afterwards more sad the utmost parts of them being rusty colour and waxing blackish with an unpleasing duskiness are beautified with three little yellow spots to the innermost being sprinkled with rusty colour first two yellow afterwards three pale yellow spots do stick If you consider them with the face upwards the upper wings are of a greenish yellow marked with six or eight spots the innermost of a light grasse-green stained with two white spots the belly and face yellowish it comes out of a whitish Aurelia spotted with little dark coloured spots 6. The upper wings without are blackish with a certain gard of a decayed red running through the midst the extremities of them glister with white spots and specks like drops being sharpned with dark coloured notches round about but in the inside that guard doth shew of a more clear and full colour and toward the bottome they seem blue the undermost wings appear of one colour without of another within without they are all over sad coloured except a reddish border with a prickly purle very small and blackish marked with four little points and two diverse coloured opals placed together within they shew nothing like to this but from a black and purle embroidery they end in a sad fading red the body is black the eyes horns feet all dusky and of the same colour 7. The whole body is black yet in every incision of the back it hath two white spots wings between yellow and red adorned with black and very white specks but the bountifull Mother of all things Dame Nature hath chiefly beautified the borders of the wings which have little teeth set like to saws at an equal distance one from the other in the border whereof 20 blue studs pierced through with black lines make a glorious shew 8. Nature bred this with a chamblet mingled coloured coat but it wants lively colours for the wings are of a black reddish fading yellow and russet colours and it is more beautiful for its soft skin than for its gallant apparel 9. This is for the most part of an ash-colour but if you look on the inside of the inmost wings there is nothing that can better represent the wings of a Turky-cock for the feathers that he flies withall are covered by other feathers with scales the eyes are black as the horns are also which are swoln like water-cats-tails 10. The body is black the shoulders are covered with yellow down as is also the whole head the horns are yellow also toward the head which appears the sadder by 〈◊〉 spot of a dark red many round pearls set at just distances do make the outward'st rounded skirt of all the wings to be more graceful but withinside they are â—oâ—led with very black 〈…〉 like lintels But as the part is less comely outwardly so 〈◊〉 〈…〉 part of the inmost wings shining with a whitish 〈…〉 spots upon it shines gallantly and those spots that 〈…〉 twardly round pearls seem inwardly pure 〈◊〉 〈…〉 11. It 〈…〉 list of oriental Pearls 〈…〉 g in blue the upper wi 〈…〉 â—eing of a flaming yellow 〈◊〉 like fire paintted with six moâ—â—â—â—ack guards the root of the 〈…〉 is black then they shine from yellow to fiery colour the body is downy with darkish hairs and the horns and feet are of the same colour 12. It is wonderful beautiful the wings are light bloud-colour dipt with black spots they shine with
know much less to shew to others And that certainly not without great reason that we might both admire the infinite power of God and acknowledge our own blindness and ignorance For these and the like did God create only for his glory that he might both confound the shallow understandings of men and also learn them to acquiesce in his wisdome only for so much as in searching out the natural causes of things it is impossible to go any farther For this is amongst the works of God that may pluck down our ambition and makes us with all our wit to fly to that common Anchor of fools namely hidden causes and the whole substance What have we then to do surely only to apply our selves unto him from whom all wisdom knowledge and perfection doth proceed for whilest we relie on our own wits and do pry into the Majesty of God we must needs as Solomon in his Proverbs speaketh be confounded by the same What then remains this surely that they which think these things to be impossible do keep their opinion to themselves without medling with those that think the contrary The Author of the Geoponicks if I am not deceived cals this little animal a Salamander his words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that is to say The Salamander that little creature is begotten in the fire and living in the fire is not consumed by it Here he tels three untruths together For neither is this the least of creatures but oftentimes bigger sometime less neither is it generated by the fire nor doth it live long in the fire as I said before out of Dioscorides Thus much I thought good to add lest young students reading those Geoponicks should erre so foully with Zoroastes For what purposes it serveth I cannot boldly say yet by its place of growth and principles it seemeth to dry and cleanse powerfully It is also of very thin parts and body it pierceth to places very distant and truly if the Grashopper which feedeth upon air be of so burning a faculty what shall we think of the Fire-fly which eateth and drinketh flames But the Fire-flies are of this use to our mindes they represent to our understanding the wonderful power of God who hath made the greatest of all the Elements Fire subject to so small so dry a creature vouchsafing to be vanquished by these while it scorneth I do not say to be vanquished to use Majolus's words Dier Canic Colloq 5. but even so much as to be touched by men or the greater Animals CHAP. XXVI Of the Water-Spider THe Water-Spider is next a little creature of exceeding nimbleness whose History Authors have so slightly handled that we can hardly pick out any thing of weight or moment towards the illustration of this History we shall yet perform what we can I utterly deny 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Aristotle to be the same with Tipula in Plautus as Gaza interprets it for I am not perswaded that Mule-gnats can come of them It is called in Latine Tipula Plautus Festus and Nonius Marcellus write it Tipul others Tipulla Guillerinus de Conchis reads Tapula Albertus and Vincentius in his Speculum call it Tappula none of them aright By Plautus it is called Tipula in Greek as I found in Gesner's papers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word truly I finde not any where any footsteps of nor can I tell what it properly signifies some High-Dutch call it Wasser-gems which is to say a Water-goat others Wasser-spin which is a Water-spider the Nether-lands Wasser-spinne with us it is called the Water-spider as with the High-Dutch and Netherlands for likeness sake in Spanish Gusano que corre sopra el aqua a worm that runs upon the water in Italian Capra di aqua in Polonian Wood ny cieluck There are two sorts of Water-spiders the greater and the less They differ in bigness only or perhaps in age the greater are more common in coldest waters the less are somewhat more blackish and of a more compact body The greater more inclines to an ash-colour being of a larger body Although severall men write severally and neither tell any certain marks whereby it may be known nor agree in the number of its feet yet I hope we shall so clearly and perspicuously explain the History of the Water-spider that there will be no occasion of doubt left hereafter The Water-spider is a little creature in shape very like a Spider of a body somewhat long and slander it hath four feet fast to its breast and two little armes stretched out before near its mouth perhaps in stead of horns which if you reckon with its feet it will have six feet which yet so far as we could observe it useth not when it runneth they are as short again as the rest of its feet neither have they any knots or joynts like the other feet Therefore Albertus and others allow but four feet to the Water-spider but Festus six reckoning these little armes together with its feet It hath four wings very feeble ones which seem not to be made for flying but for leaping They are shorter than its body and the uppermost of them a little thicker and larger than the others but yet not of leather like those sheathy cases they are between a brazen colour and a black the inner wings are lesser and thinner and of a silver colour Whether they fly by night like Water-beetles or no we are uncertain they leap sometimes upon the water so lightly that they scarce so much as stir the surface of it Hence grew that proverb among the Ancients Lighter than a Water-spider So Pierius being to express the lightness of men and Virgil the nimbleness of Camilla compare them to the Water-spider Plautus likewise in his Persa Neque Tipulae levius est pondus quam fides lenonia for so Lambine reads it against the consent of all copies even that of Nonius A Panders honesty is lighter than a Water-spider It runneth not in a continued course but with intermission It goeth not under water but when it is driven thither by force its body is never wet They are found all the Summer time in standing waters and ponds which are free from the wind and quiet sometimes also they are met with in rivers especially close by the banks of great rivers and for the most part under the shades of trees as of the willow or any other tree which is not over tall most commonly multitudes of them are together in companies They are seen sometimes to couple leaping on one anothers backs but they make an end of engendring very quickly One shall hardly finde any one of them in Winter Whether they be of any use in Physick besides the common use Flies are of we leave for others to make experiment for we know of none nevertheless we utterly deny that these little creatures were brought forth by nature to no purpose Certainly the Gudgeon the Rochet the Pearch and
skin and kernel hath Worms called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it is a mischief not to be neglected saith Theophrastus for it will not only waste all the oyl and the juice but will eat up the stones that are so hard wherein the kernel is Also little Worms are found in Galls that are eaten through and they are bred in the very inmost pith out of which afterwards ariseth a kinde of Flies and Gnats as Valerandus Doures an Apothecary of Lions testifieth Moreover in Oak Acorns and spongy Apples sometimes Worms breed and Astrologers presage that year to be likely to produce a great famine and dearth I need not contend that there are Worms in small Nuts for all men know it especially when the Summer is moist and the wind blowes from the South It is strange that Ringelbergius writes lib. de experiment that these Worms may be fed to be as big as a Serpent with sheeps milk yet Cardanus confirms the same and shewes the way to feed them Lib. de rer varictat There are little Worms bred in dry Figs like those in Hazel-nuts with a black head and the rest of the body is a whiti 〈…〉 yellow but they are smaller Bellonius saith he found that Cedar as well as Pine Apples were subâ—ect to Worms They are for thickness like to the female Glow-worm a fingers breadth long with a head like an Emmer but more compact with twelve incisions on each side it hath three feet near to the head and two circular foreyards with a thick belly and a sharp tail Also in the hard and woody hulls of the Witch-tree there is a broad seed and oft-times eaten with Worms and you shall finde there oft-times their very Aurelia's Lastly no fruit can be named but some Moth or Worm will infest it even Manna it self sometimes which the Poets feign to be the meat of the gods the Scriptures maintain to be the meat of the sons of God corrupted and bred Worms when contrary to Gods Word it was laid up till morning CHAP. XX. Of Worms of Fruits Pulse Corn Vines Herbs UPon the lower Willow especially when swelling gals break forth sometimes there are found like to roses that are full of Worms as it also happens in the leaves of the Mastick-tree Quinqueranus saith there are two kindes of scarlet Oak one like a great tree the other a small shrub about a foot and half high it spreads very broad and the leaves are smooth and shining with a numerous thorny beard in the circumference rising up with many siences like to the Rose-bush Our Countreymen call it a Beech-tree though it be nothing like to a Beech-tree It growes on plain ground but that stands high with little dry hillocks and unfruitfull when the shrubs are bedewed with showres in the midst of the Spring the Cochineal begins thus When the lower stalk divides into two branches and in the middle of these there comes forth a thing that is round and of the colour and bigness of a Pear they call this the Moâ—her because from this the other grains proceed Besides every one of these shrubs hath comâ—â—only five Mothers which at the beginning of Summer and in hot weather put forth a great company of little Worms and they cleave in the top A new off-spring of shoots growes up severally on high of a white colour that produce living creatures But wheresoever they meet with the hollow places of the twig budding where the Worms are they fall down and become as great as Millet-seed Then growing up more freely the white colour changeth into ash-colour and then they appear no more living creatures but again like unto Pease Then those grains being ripe gathered now great with colour'd Worms whilest they are carried to the Merchants the thin skin that goes about them breaks The price of a pound of these Worms that are come forth of the skin is a gold noble but that part which is yet in the skin is sold for a fourth part of it the mean while the little Worms are as if they were dead and move not But when the season of the year comes they are hastned by putting them in linnen cloths and exposing them to the Sun Then but seeling the heat they presently creep forth and strive to fly away but by the keeper of them who watcheth them continually they are shaked back into the middle of the linnen cloth till they die whilest this is doing and for three daies after there is so sweet a smell and delightful that no Civet Musk or Amber-greece nor yet Lemon flowers can surpass it But if any grains escape from him that gathers them they presently send forth a numerous army of winged creatures into the air It was observed one year that in a stony field in the Countrey by Arles the profit of this increase was reckoned at 11000 crowns So writes Quinqueranus And Carolus Clusius saith that in his time the same fashion of gathering Cochineal was observ'd about Narbon in France and also in Spain For they have plats of ground in the open air provided for the purpose with the sides something high and they lay aâ— linnen cloth upon them and pour forth the Cochineal upon that the keepers stand ready about it with little wands continually when the Sun shines very hot and they strike the outsides of the linnen cloth that they may drive back into the middle of the cloth these little Worms that hasten to come forth But Petrus Bellonius l. 1. observ c. 17. tels us of another manner of preparing Cochineal The Weevil spoils a mighty heap of corn It is formed like a small Beetle it hath a beck proper to it self and with three forks Some of them are with black bodies others with brown but others that are the greater are greenish and the middle of their body very small This creature is so dry that with the least touch it will turn to dust It is bred chiefly in the Spring some few daies before that Bees swarm Theophrastus saith they breed of one part of the grain and the other part they feedâ— on Our Countrey-men finde by experience that this wheat-worm will lay eggs in chinks of wals and under the tyles and from thence by procreation comes a new off-spring They speak of three wonders concerning these little creatures First that though they be but few at first yet in a short time they will increase infinitely Secondly that they will lie between the tyles and in chinks of wals without any meat at least three years Thirdly that if they be put into water three daies with Wheat or Barly when they are taken forth they wil live again Our Countreyman Siliardus a diligent observer of Nature describes the propagation of Weevils thus when Ants have eaten off the top of the ear of wheat the Weevill goes up and in that little hole he laies one or two eggs but seldom three so great as a grain of Millet long and yellow full of
of a Dog if it be tied on it will cure all pains Pliny writ this out of Nigidius Also he asserts that if a womans loyns be anoynted with the bloud of it she will abhorre venery Moreover nine or ten Goats Tikes taken in wine will stop the terms Dioscorides Anoynt your eye-lids with the bloud of a Tike taken from a Bitch the hairs being first pluckt off saith Galen Simpl. 10. c. 5. and they will never grow again So also Pliny and Avicenna write but it is from other mens opinions Dionysius Melesius prescribes such a Depilotary against pricking thorny hairs Burn a Sea-hare in a new earthen pot and keep the ashes with Tikes bloud in a horn box use this first pulling out the hairs Many English men have learned by experience that one dram and a half of Sheeps Lice given in drink will soon and certainly cure the Jaundies CHAP. XXVII Of the Garment-eating Moth. PEnnius beginning to write the history of this Insect saith that Tinea is a word that signifies many things as Lice of Hawk-weed according to Albertus Wood-lice in Plautus the plague of Bee-hives in Virgil and it signifies the creeping ulcers of the head that are eaten like to garments whence it may be Glaudian writes The filthy Mâ—ths have gnawn the loathsome head Gaza translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tineas but very ignorantly as we observed in the history of Catterpillars Also Pliny saith that Tineae do destroy the seeds of Figs he means the Worms that breed in Figs from whence grow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niphus cals that little Scorpion which eats books Tineas whereof I spake in the history of Scorpions But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if a man will speak properly is a Worm that eats garments It is called in Latine Tinea a tenendo from holding for it sticks fast in garments and will not easily change its station The French call it Teigne the Spaniards Tina the Italians Tignola the Muscovites Mel the Polonians Mol the English Moth the Hebrewes Hhasch and Sas as you shall finde it Job chap. 13. and Isai 51. It is a little Worm of a wan white colour of which ariseth that small kinde of Flie that will fly at night about the Candle-light There are some of them that are silver-coloured the English call them silver-moths the Dutch Schietes from their swift motion Niphus greatly erred making this the Scorpion amongst Books There is also a certain Worm that is thick or with a coat saith Pliny called Tinea that drawes its coat along with it as a Snail doth its shell and when she is deprived of this she presently dieth But if this coat grow too great it changeth to a Chrysaliâ— out of which at a set time a little Glow-worm comes This kinde hanging by a thred hangs a long time in houses before it changeth to an Aurelia It hath a little black head the rest of the body is a whitish dark brown the Case of it is something long made almost of a Cobweb not round at all but lightly compacted and at each end something hairy The Phalenae that come from thence stick by the feet to the roofs of houses untill their bodies being corrupted and putrefied they are bred again when their bodies corrupt and their wings and feet fall off of themselves they hang with a thred by the tails At length they get a Case and are turned into this kinde of Moth. In Germany and Helvetia there is a Moth of a sad red colour with a little thick head the body grows by degrees smaller even to the tail The colour of its belly is lighter something yellow and like a soft downy silk It is a very tender Creature especially that which is silver'd over and it is bruised to pieces if you do but touch it Whence that Kingly Psalmist Psal 39. When thou with chastisements shalt correct man thou makest him to consume away as a Moth. And Job Chap. 40. he amplifying the certain destruction of the wicked They shall be bruised saith he before the Moth. All Moths are reckoned amongst the number of six-footed Creatures and they breed in Garments as well of Wooll as skins that are not cleansed from dust and filth and so much the sooner if a Spider be shut in as Aristotle writes For the Spider drinks up all their inbred moysture and dries them wherefore care must be had that garments be not layd up full of dust and when the Air is thick and moyst Some to avoid Moths ventilate their garments in the hot Sun-shine which our women severely forbid and lay them up in the shade and when the winde is high and very cold For they hold that the Sun-beams are kindly for Moths but windes and tempests and the shade are enemies to them These Worms when they have by degrees insensibly eat off the outmost superficies of the cloth then they eat up the inward part and so insinuate themselves into the middle substance of it that those that search never so well for them can hardly finde them The Ancients were most expert to kill Moths For the garments of Servius Tullius lasted to the destruction of Sejanus for they were kept with so great diligence by the keepers of the Wardrobe that they neither consumed by age nor were Moth-eaten They that sell woollen Clothes use to wrap up the skin of a Bird called the Kings-Fisher amongst them or else hang one in the shop as a thing by a secret Antipathy that Moths cannot endure They are handsomely destroyed by the sent and smoke of Savin Hops Finger hood Wormwood Rosemary Poley Panax Aniseed Golden-flower Pomegranates Citron-pills for this was the chiefest use of Citrons in old time the out-landish Myrtle Cedar Cypresse Calamint Brimstone Downy feathers The Books that were found in Numa his Tomb were said to be anoynted with the juice of Cedar wherefore as Pliny writes they were supposed to be free from Moths above 530. years The bones of Bergesterts I know not what beast it is being brought to powder and strew'd amongst garments will drive away Moths if we will credit Hildegard Rhasâ—s reports that Cantharides hung up in the middle of the house will do as much Who saith moreover that garments wrapt up in a Lions skin will never have any Moths Some wet a a linnen cloth in a strong lie and dry it in the Sun without pressing it and they affirm that clothes wrapt in that will not be Moth-eaten Cato bids sprinkle your Wardrobe with Oyl-lees That which Pliny reports is a wonder that a Cloth laid under the Biere of a dead body will never have Moths to hurt it The richer people who as Horace writes Whose hangings rot in Chests rich for the Worms and Moths take diligent care in Summer to look up their garments and taking them out of their Coffers they air them in open place for the winde and then they beat off the dust with the leaves of Indian