CHAP. XL THEIR DESTRUCTIVE POWER. 209 



various parts of the country. Three have, at least, 

 been found with us, viz. two near the Moss of Banff, 

 and one at Cornhill ; another at Mintlaw, Aberdeen- 

 shire. I have also one from Lerwick, where it is said 

 they have been rather plentiful in the corn-fields; 

 as also in the Zetland Islands, in Unst, and the rest 

 of the bare and isolated Skerries. In some of the 

 Western Isles, I believe, they have actually proved a 

 complete pest. 



" As may be expected, there are many species of 

 this creature, as there are of everything else: but 

 those here alluded to are perhaps the most redoubt- 

 able of them all, as being the most destructive, the 

 best known from their migratorial flights, and being, 

 as already hinted, the species that constituted one of 

 the awful plagues of Egypt in the days of Moses. 

 They were doubtless the same that wasted the land of 

 Canaan, and caused such a terrible famine, of which 

 we read in the book of Joel. A wind drove them 

 into the sea ; their dead bodies were again cast on 

 shore in such heaps that the Hebrews were obliged 

 to dig large pits in which to bury them. In this 

 country, we have about twenty-five different kinds 

 belonging to the same family, of which the foregoing 

 is one ; but of course they are all of small size, and 

 therefore may be said to be comparatively harmless." 



In another article, Edward mentions another insect 

 almost equally destructive. A friend of Edward at 

 Turriff found four Saw-flies in a piece of a fir tree that 



