124 HISTORY OF 



insect tribes, which they seize and devour with- 

 out mercy, that they vanish at their approach. 

 Wherever they fly, like the eagle or the falcon, 

 they form a desert in the air around them. In 

 this manner the summer is passed in plundering- 

 the neighbourhood, and rearing up their young ; 

 every day adds to their numbers ; and from their 

 strength, agility, and indiscriminate appetite for 

 every kind of provision, were they as long-lived 

 as the bee, they would soon swarm upon the face 

 of nature, and become the most noxious plague 

 of man ; but providentially their lives are mea- 

 sured to their mischief, and they live but a single 

 season. 



While the summer heats continue, they are bold, 

 voracious, and enterprising ; but as the sun with- 

 draws, it seems to rob them of their courage and 

 activity. In proportion as the cold increases, they 

 are seen to become more domestic ; they seldom 

 leave the nest, they make but short adventures 

 from home, they flutter about in the noon-day 

 heats, and soon after return chilled and feeble. 



As their calamities increase, new passions soon 

 begin to take place : the care for posterity no 

 longer continues, and as the parents are no longer 

 able to provide their growing progeny a supply, 

 they take the barbarous resolution of sacrificing 

 them all to the necessity of the times. In this 

 manner, like a garrison upon short allowance, all 

 the useless hands are destroyed ; the young worms, 

 which a little before they fed and protected with 

 so much assiduity, are now butchered and dragged 

 from their cells. As the cold increases, they no 



