144 Miscellaneous Facts and Observations. 



15. The locusts mentioned by Gage must not be 

 confounded with the Cicada septendecirn, of which 

 accounts are given in the first section of this Journal. 

 He expressly says, that " they- were after the man- 

 ner of Grashoppers, but somewhat bigger." 



They were, doubtless, a species of the genus Gryllus, 

 and, of course, considerably allied to the locusts 

 (Gryllus migratorius) of the East, whose ravages 

 have employed the pens of many writers, from a very 

 distant period of time. Whether the species men- 

 tioned by Gage be described by any systematic wri- 

 ter on Entomology, I do not know. It appears, 



from the Abbe Clavigero's History, already quoted, 

 that locusts (in all probability of the same species as 

 those of which Gage speaks) have, at different times, 

 committed great ravages in the Mexican empire. 

 *' The butterflies (says he), although numerous, are 

 not to be compared, in that respect, with the locusts, 

 which, sometimes darkening the air like thick clouds, 

 fall upon the sea coasts, and lay waste all the vegeta- 

 tion of the country ; as I have myself witnessed, in 

 the year 1738, or 1739, upon the coasts of Xicayan. 

 From this cause a great famine was lately occasioned 

 in the Peninsula of Yucatan : but no country has been 

 visited by this dreadful scourge so often as the 

 wretched California." In a note, the Abbe adds, " In 



the History of California, will be found a great 



many observations with respect to locusts, made by 

 the Abbe D. Mich, del Barco, who lived upwards of 

 thirty years in that country." The History of Mexi- 

 co. Vol. 1. p. 70. 



Editor. 



