180 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. XII. 



of the locust is given in the 46th vol. of Philosoph- 

 ical Transactions : — 



"The first swarm entered Transylvania in Au- 

 gust, 1747 ; these were succeeded by others, which, 

 were so surprisingly numerous, that when they 

 reached the Red Tower they were full four hours 

 in their passage over that place ; and they flew so 

 close that they made a sort of. noise in the air by 

 beating with their wings against one another. The 

 width of the swarm was some hundreds of fathoms, 

 and the height or density may be easily imagined 

 to be more considerable, inasmuch as they hid the 

 sun and darkened the sky, even to that degree, 

 when they flew low, that people could not know 

 one another at the distance of twenty yards ; they 

 were to fly over a river that runs by the valleys of 

 the Red Tower, and could find neither resting-place 

 nor food, but being at length tired of their flight, 

 one part of them lighted on the unripe corn on this 

 side of the Red Tower, such as millet and Turkish 

 wheat ; another pitched in a low wood, where, hav- 

 ing miserably wasted the produce of the land, they 

 continued their journey as if a signal had been 

 given for a march. The guards of the Red Tower 

 attempted to stop their irruption into Transylvania 

 by firing at them ; and, indeed, when the balls and 

 shot swept through the swarm, they gave way and 

 divided ; but having filled up their ranks in a mo- 

 ment, they proceeded on their journey. In the, 

 month of September some troops of them were 

 thrown to the ground by great rains and other in- 

 clemencies of the weather, and, thoroughly soaked 

 with wet, they crept along in quest of holes in the 

 earth, dung, and straw, where, being sheltered from i 

 the rains, they laid a vast number of eggs, which i 

 stuck together by a viscid juice, and were longer 

 and smaller than what are commonly called ants' 

 eggs, very like grains of oats. The females, havingJ 

 laid their eggs, die like the silkworm : and we Tran-s 



