22 HISTORY OF 



the powers of injuring mankind, by swarming 

 upon the productions of the earth. The quan- 

 tity of grass which a few grasshoppers that sport 

 in the fields can destroy, is trifling ; but when a 

 swarm of locusts, two or three miles long, and 

 several yards deep, settle upon a field, the con- 

 sequences are frightful. The annals of every 

 country are marked with the devastation which 

 such a multitude of insects produces ; and though 

 they seldom visit Europe in such dangerous 

 swarms as formerly, yet in some of the southern 

 kingdoms they are still formidable. Those which 

 have at uncertain intervals visited Europe, in our 

 memory, are supposed to have come from Africa, 

 and the animal is called the Great Brown Locust. 

 It was seen in several parts of England in the 

 year 1748, and many dreadful consequences were 

 apprehended from its appearance. This insect is 

 about three inches long, and has two horns or 

 feelers an inch in length. The head and horns 

 are of a brownish colour; it is blue about the 

 mouth, as also on the inside of the larger legs. 

 The shield that covers the back is greenish, and 

 the upper side of the body brown, spotted with 

 black, and the under side purple. The upper 

 wings are brown, with small dusky spots, with 

 one larger at the tips ; the under wings are more 

 transparent, and of a light brown tinctured with 

 green, but there is a dark cloud of spots near the 

 tips. This is that insect that has threatened us 

 so often with its visitations, and that is so truly 

 terrible in the countries where it is bred. There 

 is no animal in the creation that multiplies so 



