80 OCCASIONAL PAPERS. 



V. THE LARGE GREEN GRASSHOPPER, 



Acrida vindissima. 

 Reprinted from Science Gossip, September, 1868. 



Among the terrestrial creatures now peopling the 

 earth in such vast myriads, none come across our 

 path so often as the Grass-hoppers. Every tuft of 

 grass seems alive with their curious calls ; at every 

 step one seems to hop away from us. And they well 

 repay a short examination, were it only for their 

 varied and lovely colours : some having their 

 habitation solely in the grass, are of its own green 

 hue, others enlivening the bare chalky slopes are grey 

 while some again are of a delicate carmine, some 

 green and some crimson in fact, as we catch one 

 after another, there seems no end to their tints. 

 The Large Grasshopper, of which I have made a few 

 notes, is, however, much more seldom seen ; when 

 it is caught it is generally killed and pinned out, as 

 something a little out of the common, but very rarely 

 is it kept alive, and consequently little or nothing is 

 known of its habits. My friend Mr. Tate just 

 mentions it in the volume for 18G6, and Mrs. Watney 

 also states one fact concerning its food. Were it 

 better known I suppose we should have a recognized 

 English name for it ; as it is, it goes by the name of 

 the Green Locust, or the one at the head of this 

 article, But, scientifically, it is neither a locust nor 



