THE EGGS OF THE LOCUST. 333 



The eggs of the Migratory Locust are small, long, and oval, 

 about the size and shape of rice-grains. They are gathered 

 together in rounded groups of some forty in number, the eggs 

 projecting like almonds from a pudding. A quaint and simple 

 account of the growth and habits of the Locust is given by 

 Mouffet in his " Theatre of Insects." 



"Now the female bringeth forth (as Aristot. saith), the little 

 stem that grows to her tail being stuck in the ground, and thus 

 layeth all her burden together in the same place, which scatter- 

 ing up and down, look as it were like a honey-comb. Hence 

 proceeds a kind of little worm in the likeness of an egge, in- 

 cluded in a little earthly thin membrane, the which being forced 

 open, out come the locusts and fly abroad. But (by the favour 

 of so great a philosopher) they lay eggs indeed at the beginning 

 of autumn, though not of the fashion of eggs, as I have seen 

 with my eyes and have had them in my hands. The which 

 feture is so tender, that with the least touch it is bruised to 

 pieces. 



"Neither is it laid upon the superficies of the earth, but 

 somewhat deeper, and in the winter underground : where in 

 the winter they being perfected by concoction, in the subsequent 

 year, almost at the latter end of spring, they come forth out of 

 the shell or membrane aforesaid, wherein they were, being yet 

 little blackish locusts creeping up and down without either 

 shanks or wings, which afterwards in a short time become 

 bigger. They bring forth at the latter end of summer, and 

 when they have so done they forthwith die, certain little vermine 

 breeding about their necks (as it happeneth to the beetle) which 

 do strangle them. These dying after such foolish fashion as 

 they do, are yet able at their pleasure, any one of them, if it do 

 but fasten on his chaps, to kill a serpent 



" In a wet spring the eggs perish, but in a dry there is 

 great increase of them. Some will have them to be brought 

 forth and to dye twice a year (in the number of whom is 

 Willichius,) that is to say, at the rising of the Pleiades they come 

 forth, and dye at the setting of the Dog-star, then others to be 

 brought forth. Some say at the setting of Arcturus. In 

 mountainous places, and of a thin air, there breed no locusts, but 

 in plains and places full of clifts and chaps ; nor do they lay 

 their eggs upon the superficies, but in the chinks and caverns of 



