LOCUSTID^ — LOCUSTS. 129 



he nobly answered, "I value not ray life when it is for tlie 

 good of my subjects and people to lose it," and immediately 

 swallowed the insects. History tells us the Locusts that 

 very moment took wing, and went off without doing any 

 more damage; but whether or not the heroic Emperor 

 recovered leaves us in ignorance.^ 



Mr. J. M. Jones gives the following ludicrous account of 

 the capture of a Locust in the Bermudas. While walking 

 one hot day in the vicinity of the barracks at St. George's, 

 with his lamented friend, the late Col. Oakly (56th Regt.), 

 on the lookout for insects, a very fine specimen of the 

 Locust sprung up before them. The former chased it for a 

 while unavailingly, but determined not to be balked of his 

 prey; the colonel then joined in the pursuit, and after a 

 sharp and hot chase, bagged his game right before a sentry- 

 box ; the sentry, as in duty bound, standing with arms pre- 

 sented, in the presence of a field officer, who was, however, 

 in a rather undignified position to receive the salute. They 

 had gained their prize, however, and had a hearty laugh, in 

 which we fancy the sentry could scarcely help joining.^ 



Capt. Drayson, in his South African Sporting, tells the 

 following anecdote : A South African, riding through a 

 flock of Locusts, was struck in the eye by one of them, and, 

 though blinded momentarily in the injured eye, he still kept 

 the other on the insect, which sought to escape by diving 

 among the crowd on the ground. So, dismounting, he cap- 

 tured it, passed a large pin through its body, and thrust it 

 in his waistcoat pocket; and whenever the damaged eye 

 smarted, he pulled it out again, and stuck the pin through 

 it in a fresh place. ^ 



Darwin tells us that when the "Beagle" was to windward 

 of the Cape de Verd Islands, and when the nearest point of 

 land, not directly opposed to the trade-wind, was Cape 

 Blanco on the coast of Africa, 370 miles distant, a large 

 Grasshopper — Acri/dium — flew on board !* But Sir Hans 

 Sloane mentions a much more remarkable flight in his His- 

 tory of Jamaica ; for when the Assistance frigate was about 



1 Hist. Acct. of China, b. ii. c. 15, and Church Col. of Voy. and 

 Trav., i. 95. 



'^Naturalist in Bermuda, p. 112. 

 3 S. African Sport., p. 220. 

 * Darwin's Res., p. 159. 



12* 



