A NOTICE OK 



dible : they descended from the hills like torrents ; and the plantations, 

 as well as every path and road for miles, were filled with them. Rats, 

 mice, reptiles, birds, and even some of the domestic quadrupeds, were 

 killed by them. Streams of water opposed only a temporary obstacle 

 to their progress : the foremost rushing blindly on to a certain death, 

 and fresh armies continually following, till a bank was formed of the 

 carcases of those that were drowned, sufficient to dam up the waters, 

 and allow the main body to pass over in safety below. They even rush- 

 ed into the fires that were lighted to stop them. This pest was at length 

 exterminated by a hurricane. 



In many cases the labours of entomologists have been highly use- 

 ful, in discovering the mode and times of their breeding, hatching, 

 or laying of eggs, thereby enabling observers to know the period at 

 which it is most easy to destroy them. Their labours have also been 

 very important in tracing the animal through its transformations, and 

 thus affording the means of determining the destructive parent of an 

 innocent progeny, or the reverse. For example, it may be worth 

 while for housewives to know, that it is not the moth, but the maggot 

 that eats the blankets ; and that, if such be exposed to light during 

 the laying season, they may be neglected all the rest of the year. 



It is not the pleasure nor the worldly profit which attend the study 

 of entomology, which alone can be adduced in its behalf,- but lessons 

 and themes of the highest import are enforced by the pursuit. The 

 greatest benefits resulting from a well regulated knowledge of the 

 forms and laws of nature, arise from the manner in which the student 

 beholds in them the power, the wisdom, and the providence of the 

 Supreme Being. We have noticed the ravages of the formidable 

 march of some of the tribes of insects, and others still more terrific 

 might be quoted. But we rather proceed to mention, or rather ta 

 allude, in a few words, to some of the wonderful facts connected with 

 the history of this countless class of creatures. 



It is fortunate for the human species that many of our greatest ene- 

 mies make war on each other. Thus, if we find among insects foes, 

 we have also allies. The misfortune, however, is, that the ignorant 

 do not always know their friends from their enemies; so that he who 

 destroys the great dragon-fly, or a few wasps, leaves, for each of the 

 former, many thousands of plagues, which that tiger of its division 

 was created to slay ; and for every wasp, hundreds of flies to prey upon 

 certain of the most valuable garden fruits. To pass over the many 

 curious discoveries which have been made relative to the care which 

 insects take in depositing their eggs, or providing for their young — 

 their kinds of food, or their various ways of eating it — their strata- 

 gems to ensnare their prey — the construction of their habitations — 

 their motions in flying, jumping, swimming, &c., let us observe what 

 is said of the vitality of some species, which, to us miserable mortals, 

 who die when the brains are out, and long before, as says a reviewer 

 on this very subject, is a very provoking circumstance. Thus, the 

 females of moths and butterflies will live after the roughest treatment, 

 till they have laid their eggs. There are many of them that will go 

 on living and perform their hsuuI functions without wings, or legs, or 



