134 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



steady, while that of locusts is longer and better sustained. Many- 

 locusts, when they fly, make a loud whizzing noise, the source of 

 which does not seem to be understood. Those of our native 

 locusts, whose flight is the most noisy, are the coral-winged, the 

 yellow-winged, and the broad-winged species. But as these are 

 comparatively small insects, and never assemble in such great 

 swarms as the much larger migrating locusts of Asia and Africa, 

 the noise of their flight bears no comparison to that of the latter. 

 When a large number of these take flight together, it is said that 

 the noise is like the rushing of a whirlwind ; and hence we read, 

 of the symbolical locusts of the Apocalypse, that the sound of 

 their wings was as the sound of chariots of horses running to bat- 

 tle* ; and, of others, that their coming is like the noise of chariots 

 on the tops of mountains, or the crackling of stubble when over- 

 run, and consumed by a flame of fire f. 



The East seems to have suffered severely at various times 

 from the irruptions of immense swarms of locusts, darkening the 

 sky during their passage, stripping the surface of the earth, where 

 they alight, of all vestiges of vegetation, and thus reducing, in an 

 inconceivably short time, the most fertile regions to barren 

 wastes. The ground over which they have passed presents the 

 appearance of having been scorched by fire, and hence the name 

 of locust, which is derived from the Latin J, and means a burnt 

 place, is highly expressive of the desolation occasioned by their 

 ravages. Famine and pestilence have sometimes followed their 

 appearance, as we find recorded by various writers. In the 

 Scriptures § frequent mention is made of the destructive powers 

 of locusts, and these accounts are fully confirmed by the testimony 

 of numerous travellers in Asia and Africa, some of whom have 

 been eyewitnesses of the devastations of these insects. Among 



* Revelations IX. 11. t Joel II. 5. J Locus and ustus. 



§ For an explanation of the various passages in which allusion is made to lo- 

 custs, and for much interesting matter, relating to the history of these insects as 

 contained in the Bible and elucidated by the accounts of historians and travellers, 

 the reader is referred to the article locust in the learned and instructive work of my 

 father, entitled " The Natural History of the Bible, by Thaddeus Mason Harris." 

 Svo. Boston: 1620. 



