694 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 





grass and low bushes, especially in the south of England. It is about 2 inches in length. 



Among the foreign species of this rather extensive family, we may mention some green or 



reddish South American species, with a large round spot on the hind wings, not unlike those seen 



in the peacock-butterfly. 



The last family includes the SHORT-HORNED GRASSHOPPERS, or TRUE LOCUSTS, so 



very destructive in many countries, 

 though the real MIGRATORY LOCUSTS 

 are only casual visitors to England, 

 the native British species being all 

 small insects, found among grass, 

 and doing but little damage. The 

 commonest of the Migratory Locusts 

 visiting Britain is the RED-LEGGED 

 LOCUST, which expands from 2 to 4 

 inches, and has grey wing-cases varied 

 with brown, pale green hind wings, 

 and red hind shanks, with white 

 black-tipped spines. Another species, 

 the EGYPTIAN LOCUST, more rarely 

 met with, has brown fore wings, and 

 grey hind wings, crossed by a broad 

 blackish band. Two photographs are 

 given on page 693 of a specimen 

 brought to England among vegetables 

 in the spring of 1901. Many foreign 

 locusts, large and small, have beauti- 

 ful red or blue hind wings, and some 

 of these are common on the Continent, 

 though not in England ; those found 

 in Europe are comparatively small, 

 measuring only I or 2 inches across 

 the wing-cases; but some of the great 

 South American locusts measure as 

 much as 7 or 8 inches in expanse. 

 However, some of the smaller species, 

 such as the CYPRIAN LOCUST and 

 theRocKY MOUNTAIN LocusT.which 

 measure less than 2 inches across 

 the wing-cases, are much more de- 

 structive than the large species. 



A real invasion of locusts is a 

 terrible calamity, for the insects fly 

 Ft,,,,, t, W. L. H. Dudwcnh i;k e birds, but in vast flocks, and de- 



WART-EATING GRASSHOPPER (TWO VIEWS) vour every scrap of vegetation where 



they settle. Sometimes a flight, two 



Used by Swedish peasants to bite off their -warts J 



or three miles broad, continues to fly 



steadily over the same spot for hours together. Sometimes flocks perish at sea, and are cast 

 up on the beach in heaps like sand-hills, extending for a distance of forty or fifty miles. Nor are 

 the young locusts less destructive before they acquire wings ; for they march across a district in 

 such numbers as to extinguish fires, fill up trenches, and overcome all similar obstacles placed in 

 their way by sheer force of numbers ; and it is well said of a visitation of locusts, " The land is 

 as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind is a desolate wilderness." 



