Notes of a Journey through Syria ^c. 413 



ascent, on the crater of an extinct volcano, full of water and 

 surrounded with basalt boulders. As we came up, one of 

 these flights, which had alighted to drink, rose in alarm and 

 darkened the air overhead. About a dozen fell to a random 

 shot, and every one I picked up was in full breeding-plumage. 

 At another place a solitary tree over a well was so covered 

 with them that the colour of the tree changed from black to 

 green as we approached. Once we came on a patch of some 

 acres which had recently been visited by locusts. The old 

 locusts were gone, but the young, not more than a quarter of 

 an inch long, made the ground literally alive. They rose at 

 every step of our horses like sand-lice on the sea- shore from a 

 piece of seaweed left by the tide. Just after we had passed 

 through this patch of devastating flight, I turned my head 

 and saw a great globe in the air. It suddenly turned, ex- 

 panded, and like a vast fan descended to the ground. We 

 waited a few minutes, and saw acres covered with a moving 

 black mass, dappled with pink. In a short time the mass 

 became restless, and we rode back. The birds rose quietly, 

 but not till we were close on them, and only those within 

 dangerous distance. But not a young locust could we see. 

 The Pastor had well earned its name of the " Locust-bird,^^ 

 and one batch of foes to man and his labour had been 

 promptly and for ever exterminated. 



After these three days I never again saw a Pastor. The 

 natives all declared their visits to be most uncertain and 

 occasional. They assured me they had not seen one for three 

 years, though they always look and hope for them in locust- 

 years, which these last had been. They always come from the 

 east and go to the west. They never saw them return, nor 

 did they ever hear of their breeding here. Throughout Syria 

 the bird is everywhere familiar by name, but nowhere is it 

 known to sojourn; nor was I able to ascertain whether its 

 migration is always at the same season. When and where 

 do they breed ? Among the hundreds of thousands which 

 crossed our path I did not detect one in young plumage ; 

 and therefore they could not yet have bred, although it was 

 near the end of May — unless, indeed, they had left their 



SER. IV. VOL. VI. 2 F 



