302 



AUGUST. 



the young wasps. This curious proceeding is 

 only equalled by the cuckoo, who leaves her 

 eggs to the hedge-sparrow. 



In this part of the country there are few 

 wasp-nests without one or more of this insect, 

 if the cells be carefully examined. 



Locusta; (locusts and grasshoppers.) This 

 country is only occasionally visited by the de- 

 vastating migratory locust (Locusta Migra- 

 toria,) which, with other large species of the 

 same genus, make such tremendous havoc with 

 every green thing in more southern latitudes. 

 The smaller species, to the number of more 

 than twenty, are found in this country, and 

 towards the end of the summer months tend 

 to enliven by their chirpings almost every 

 heath and dry bank in the kingdom. Grass- 

 hoppers were held in high estimation by the 

 Egyptians and Greeks for their musical powers. 

 Kirby and Spence contend that these were 

 Cicadae; but if we are to believe certain an- 

 cient gems in the Florentine Gallery, they were 

 clearly of the genus Locusta, to which our 

 grasshoppers belong ; and this fact is confirmed 

 by Kirby and Spence themselves, in Vol. II. 

 page 401 , where they inform us, that in Spain 



