772 



A HISTORY OF 



lower down there is still a third ; so that it is 

 not without reason that all the animals of 

 tliis order are said to chew the end, as they 

 so much resemble ruminant animals in their 

 internal conformation. 



A short time after the grasshopper assumes 

 its wings, it tills the meadow with its note; 

 which, like that among birds, is a call to 

 courtship. The male only of this tribe is 

 vocal; and, upon examining at the base of 

 the wings, there will be found a little hole in 

 its body, covered with a fine transparent 

 membrane. This is thought, by Linnreus, to 

 be the instrument it employs in singing: but 

 others are of opinion the sound is produced 

 by rubbing its hinder legs against each other: 

 however this be, the note of one male is sel- 

 dom heard, but it is returned by another; 

 and the two little animals, after many mutual 

 insults of this kind, are seen to meet and fight 

 desperately. The female is generally the 

 reward of victory ; for, after the combat, the 

 male seizes her with his teeth behind the 

 neck, and thus keeps her for several hoars 

 till the business of fecundation is performed. 

 They are at that time so strongly united, that 

 they can scarcely be separated without tear- 

 ing asunder. Towards the latter end of 

 autumn the female prepares to deposite her 

 burden ; and her body is then seen greatly 

 distended with her eggs, which she carries to 

 the number of an hundred and filly. In order 

 to make a proper lodgment in the earth for 

 them, nature has furnished her with an instru- 

 ment at her tail, somewhat resembling a two- 

 edged sword, which she can sheath and un- 

 sheath at pleasure : with this she pierces 

 the earth as deep as she is able ; and into 

 the hole which her instrument has made, she 

 deposites her eggs, one after the other. 



Having thus provided for the continuation 

 of her posterity, the animal herself does not 

 long survive; but as the winter approaches, 

 she dries up, seems to feel the effects of age, 

 and dies from a total decay. Some, however, 

 assert, that she is killed by the cold ; and 

 others, that she is eaten by worms : but cer- 

 tain it is, that neither the male nor female 

 are ever seen to survive the winter. In the 

 mean time, the eggs which have been de- 

 posited continue unaltered, either by the 

 severity of the season or the retardation of 



the spring. They are of an oval figure, 

 white, and of the consistence of horn : their 

 size nearly equals that of a grain of anise: 

 they are enveloped in the body within a 

 covering, branched all over with veins and 

 arteries; and when excluded they crack, on 

 being pressed between the fingers ; their 

 substance within is a whitish, viscous, and 

 transparent fluid. In this manner they re- 

 main deposited beneath the surface of the 

 earth, during the whole winter; till the genial 

 return of spring begins to vivify and hatch 

 them. The sun, with its warmth, beginning 

 to animate all nature, the insect eggs feel 

 its benign influence ; .and, generally, about 

 the beginning of May, every egg produces an 

 insect, about the size of a flea. These, at 

 first, are of a whitish colour; at the end of 

 two or three days they turn black; and 

 soon after they become of a reddish brown.. 

 They appear, from the beginning, like grass- 

 hoppers, wanting wings ; and hop among the 

 grass, as soon as excluded, with great agility. 

 Yet still they are by no means arrived at 

 their state of full perfection; although they 

 bear a strong resemblance to the animal in 

 its perfect form. They want, or seem to want,, 

 the wings, which they are at last seen to as- 

 sume; and can only hop among the grass, 

 without being able to fly. The wings, how- 

 ever, are not wanting, but are concealed 

 within four little bunches, that seem to deform 

 the sides of the animal : there they lie rolled 

 up in a most curious manner; and occupying 

 a smaller space than one could conceive who 

 saw them extended. Indeed, all insects, 

 whatever transmutations they seem to undergo^ 

 are yet brought forth with those very limbs, 

 parts, and wings, which they afterwards seem 

 to acquire. In the most helpless caterpillar, 

 there is still to be seen the rudiments of that 

 beautiful plumage which it afterwards ex- 

 pands when a butterfly : and though many 

 new parts seem unfolded to the view, the ani- 

 mal acquires none but such as it was from 

 the beginning possessed of. The grasshop- 

 per, therefore, though seemingly without 

 wings, is, in reality, from the first, possessed 

 of those instruments, and only waits for suf- 

 ficient force to break the bonds that hold 

 them folded up, and to give them their full 

 expansion. 



