and Joyners work; but also for the fitness of its
leaves (besides their principal use for the food of _Silkworms_) to fatten
Sheep, Goats, Cowes, and Hoggs, only by boyling and mingling them with
Bran. The Berryes themselves he commends as very excellent to fatten
Poultry, and to make them lay Eggs plentifully. In the _Changes_,
_Working_, and _Generation_ of this _Insect_, he is very curious to observe
many things. Their _Metamorphoses_, as is known, are four, whereof the form
of the one hath no conformity with any of the rest. The first from an Egge
(of the bigness of a Mustard-seed, and of a darkish Gray Colour, when good)
to a _Worm_ or _Caterpillar_, but of a domestick, noble, and profitable
kind, _Black_, when it first comes {89} forth, but growing _white_ at last;
having 24. feet, 8. on each side of the body, and 4. besides, close to each
side of the head. During this form, they undergo constantly 4. Sicknesses,
in which they cast their Skins, each sickness lasting about 4. days,
wherein they feed not at all; but grow clearer, shorter, and thicker. The
second from a _Worm_ to an _Aurelia_ or _Chrysalis_, having the shape of a
small Plum, whereunto it is transformed after its spinning time is past; in
which state it lies shut up, in hot Countries, for 14. or 15. dayes; in
more temperate ones, 18. or 20. without any Food or Air, known to us.
During which time this _Insect_ leaves two Coats, both that of a _Worm_,
whence 'tis changed into an _Aurelia_, and that of an _Aurelia_, whence it
becomes a _Papilio_ or _Butterfly_, in the _Theca_ or _Case_. The third is,
from an _Aurelia_ to a _Butterfly_, coming out of the _Theca_ with a head,
leggs, and horns; for which passage it makes way by a whitish water, it
casts upon the Silk, which moistning, and thereby in a manner putrefying
it, the new creature thrusts out its head through the sharp end of the
_Case_, by a Hole as big as its self. There is found no Excrement in the
_Case_, but the two Skins only, just now mentioned.

Before they begin to spin, and about the latter end of their feeding, they
must, saith the _Author_, be often changed, and have Air enough, by opening
the Windows of the Room, they are in, if it be not too ill Weather; else,
saith he, the Silk that is in their Belly, will cause so extraordinary a
heat in them, that it burns their gutts, and sometimes bursts them; and the
same (being a substance that resembleth Gum or Burgundy Pitch) will putrefy
and