difappear’d, and moft alfo o f the rednefs or fucked blood in the guts,
the periftaltick motion o f which was fcaree difcermble 5 but upon the
fuffering it to fuck, it prefently fill’d the skin o f the belly, and o f
the fix fcolop’d embofments on either fide, as full as it could be
ftuft ; the ftomach and guts were as full as they could hold ; the
periftaltick motion o f the guts grew quick, and the juftling motion o f
I I accordingly 5 multitudes of milk-white veffels feem'd quickly filled,
and turgid, which were perhaps the veins and arteries, and the creature
was fo greedy, that though it could not contain more, yet it continued
fucking as faft as ever, and as faft emptying it felf behind : the digeft-
ion of this creature muff needs be very quick, for though I perceived
die blood thicker and blacker when fuck’d, yet, when in the guts, it
was o f a very lovely ruby colour, and that part o f it, which was digeft-
ed into the veins, feem’d whites whence it appears, that a further
digeftion o f blood may make it milk, at leaft o f a refembling colour :
What elfe is obfervable in the Figure o f this creature, may be feen
in the Plate.
A s thefe vermin are natural to the bodies o f the human fpecies,
fo likewife, moft birds o f different kinds, fome forts o f fifh, and many
kinds o f quadrupeds have their particular forts o f fleas, and lice, proper
and peculiar to themfelves, and manifeftly differing from each other.
Seignior Redi, having delineated fome o f thefe ; I think it will not
be foreign to the Subjedt, to relate the difcoveries ( he tell us) he
made, by the advantage o f a great many experiments.
I n the hawk (fays he) I’ve obferved three diftinft forts o f fleas, and!
as many in the turkey-hen; in the wild-duck four : in the fwan, wild-
goofe, keftrel and plover, two: Yet it mull be allow’d that there is
a fort o f birds that have either the fame fort o f fleas, or fome that are
very like them. The golden-eagle, and the bird by the Italians
call’d vaccaio from its keeping company with cows, as well as the
keftrel, have very large ones: which laft named bird hath alfo another
fort o f fleas no ways differing in fhape from thofe o f the raven, but
o f another colour ; and the raven others very like the leffer fort o ffice
found upon the egret. Some o f the buftard’s fleas, i f view’d at a dift-
ance, very much refemble thofe found upon the egret. On the woodpecker
and chaffinch I have feen fleas refembling thofe o f the ftarling
and on the wild-duck o f the larger kind, much the fame fort o f fleas
with thofe o f the wild-goofe. In the feathers o f a crane are to be
found nefts o f white lice, marked, as it were with arabic or algebraic
characters. Farther, it is remarkable that the bignefi o f each bird’s
fleas bears not adequate proportion to the bignefs o f the birds- they are
found upon; but amongft the larger kind o f birds may be found*
efter and larger fort o f fleas o f a different kind; and I remember that
1 have feen fleas upon a blackbird as large as thofe found upon a fwan.
I f you view fleas when upon their feet, there is not the leaft an.
pearance o f a mouth to be difcovered, but i f you turn them upon their
backs you may difcern the fituation o f their mouth plac’d on the und
e r lie o f the probofeis or trunk, in the form of a pair o f pinchers,
much refembling that o f .the wood-loufe. In a word, there is foch a
wonderful variety o f fleas o f diftmft forts, fo ftrangely different one
m another, that I thought it much better to exhibit ’em drawn upon
copper ates t an to give the reader a long- and tedious? defcription o f
em. s to their colour, ’tis generally the fame, or very near that
o f the feathers o f .the birds on which they are found. K
mult own I m o f opinion ( which experience countenanceth > that fteas
when