176 On American Locusts. 



the trees. Their united noise was very loud and in- 

 cessant, and from the time the morning dews were 

 evaporated to sun-setting, it resembled a perfect charm, 

 resembling thousands of small bees. 



These insects did not appear to be any way injurious 

 to vegetation. Some of them were quite empty, and 

 others were filled with a viscid lymph, which was sup- 

 posed to be extracted from the leaves or bark of the 

 trees ; but I could never detect one with his proboscis in- 

 serted into any substance, and from its compression to 

 the body, it did not seem well calculated for that purpose. 



About the first of June, the females deposited their 

 eggs. They first made incisions in the bark of hickory, 

 oak, or apple-trees, with the horn above described, 

 from three to six inches in length. In these they de- 

 posited their eggs, which were small, hard, and spheri- 

 cal. About the middle of the month, the locusts began 

 to lose their activity, sung less, and did not soar so 

 high. I saw them in a hard rain, which happened 

 about this time, beaten down to the ground by it, 

 where they were devoured by hogs. They now began 

 to die naturally i and before the end of June, they en- 

 tirely disappeared. In many places, hogs, for some 

 time, wholly subsisted upon them. In the flat, sandy, 

 and swamp land, about Smithfield, where I then re- 

 sided, and the whole eastern part of the State, one of these 

 locusts was rarely seen ; and it is remarkable, that among 

 those which I saw in the hilly country, I never observed 

 one to i n For a moment upon a pine-tree, though I 



