gone through the second change of their skin. God, therefore, the Supreme Artist, has been pleased to assign this insect a short life that surpasses adoration.
"Who has so great a genius, or is so conversant in the art of writing, as to be able to describe with a due sense, the trouble, the misfortunes this creature is subject to during the short continuance of its flying life? For my part, I confess I am by no means able to execute this task, nor do I know whether nature ever produced a more innocent and simple little creature, which is, notwithstanding, destined to undergo so many miseries and horrible dangers.
"Besides that the life of the Ephemerus is short, nay, amazingly and incomprehensibly so, an infinite number of them are always destroyed in the birth, being devoured by fish. Nor does Clutius acquit any species of fish of this barbarity, except the perch and pike. Though the rest of the ephemeri have escaped this cruel danger, yet on land, when they are engaged in the great work of changing their skin, they are barbarously devoured by swallows and other birds. Nay, if they escape this danger, when they afterwards approach again to the surface of the water, and carelessly sport and play there with their wings and tails, they a second time become a prey to the fish, which drag them away to the dark bottom of the water, and devour them. If they fly higher into the air, another kind of torment attends them, for then they are persecuted with a different barbarity, by other kinds of birds, which tear their limbs asunder, and devour them. Though these insects
