to be neer eleven pound
_Haverdupois_. So that it seems one of the biggest sort of terrestrial
Animals, as well as one of the smallest, has his teeth thus shap'd.

* * * * *

Observ. XLI. _Of the Eggs of _Silk-worms_, and other Insects._

The Eggs of Silk-worms (one of which I have describ'd in the second
_Figure_ of 25. _Scheme_) afford a pretty Object for a _Microscope_ that
magnifies very much, especially if it be bright weather, and the light of a
window be cast or collected on it by a deep _Convex-glass_, or Water-ball.
For then the whole surface of the Shell may be perceiv'd all cover'd over
with exceeding small pits or cavities with interposed edges, almost in the
manner of the surface of a Poppy-seed, but that these holes are not an
hundredth part scarce of their bigness; the Shell, when the young ones were
hatch'd (which I found an easie thing to do, if the Eggs were kept in a
warm place) appear'd no thicker in proportion to its bulk, then that of an
Hen's or Goos's Egg is to its bulk, and all the Shell appear'd very white
(which seem'd to proceed from its transparency) whence all those pittings
did almost vanish, so that they could not, without much difficulty, be
discern'd, the inside of the Shell seem'd to be lin'd also with a kind of
thin film, not unlike (keeping the proportion to its Shell) that with which
the shell of an Hen-egg is lin'd; and the shell it self seem'd like common
Egg-shells; very brittle, and crack'd. In divers other of these Eggs I
could plainly enough, through the shell, perceive the small Insect lie
coyled round the edges of the shell. The shape of the Egg it self, the
Figure pretty well represents (though by default of the Graver it does not
appear so rounded, and lying above the Paper, as it were, as it ought to
do) that is, it was for the most part pretty oval end-ways, somewhat like
an Egg, but the other way it was a little flatted on two opposite sides.
Divers of these Eggs, as is common to most others, I found to be barren, or
addle, for they never afforded any young ones. And those I usually found
much whiter then the other that were prolifick. The Eggs of other kinds of
Oviparous Insects I have found to be perfectly round every way, like so
many Globules, of this sort I have observ'd some sorts of Spiders Eggs; and
chancing the last Summer to inclose a very large and curiously painted
Butterfly in a Box, intending to examine its gaudery with my