LOCUST. 133 



peared that they had wings, very like the wings of 

 , but as yet unripe and unexpanded; and then 

 their bodv was very tender, and of a yellowish 

 green: then, i:i order to render themselves fit for 

 flying, they gradually unfolded their wings with 

 their hinder feet, as flies do, and as soon as any of 

 them found themselves able to use their wings, 

 they soared up, and by flying round the others, 

 enticed them to join them; and thus, their num- 

 bers encreasing daily, they took circular flights 

 of twenty or thirty yards square, until they were 

 joined bv the rest; and after miserably laying 

 waste their native fields, they proceeded elsewhere 

 in large troops. Wheresoever those troops hap- 

 pened to pitch, they spared no sort of vegetable : 

 thev eat up the young corn, and the very grass; 

 but nothing was more dismal than to behold the 

 lands in which they were hatched; for they so 

 greedily devoured every green thing thereon, be- 

 fore they could fly, that they left the ground quite 

 bare." ' 



" There is nothing to be feared in those places 

 to which this plague did not reach before the au- 

 tumn; for the Locusts have not strength to fly to 

 any considerable distance but in the months of 

 July, August, and the begining of September; 

 and even then, in changing their places of resid- 

 ence, they seem to tend to warmer climates." 



" Different methods are to be employed, ac- 

 cording to the age and state of these insects; for 

 some will be effectual as soon as they are hatched; 

 others when they begin to crawl, and others in 



