THEGRASSHOPPER. agj 



buckler jutting over it, and armed with brown teeth, hooked at the 

 points J within the mouth is a large reddifh tongue, fixed to the lower 

 jaw. The feelers or horns are very long, tapering off to a point ; and 

 the eyes are like two black fpecks, a little prominent. The corflet is 

 elevated, narrow, armed above and below by two ferrated fpines. The 

 back is armed with a flrons buckler, to which the mufcles of the Ics^s 

 are firmly bound j and round thefe mufcles are feen the vefTels by which 

 the animal breathes, as white as fnow. The laft pair of legs are much 

 longer and ftronger than the firft two pair, fortified by thick mufcles^ 

 and formed for leaping. It has four wings ; the anterior fpringing from 

 the fecond pair of legs, the pofterior from the third pair. The hinder 

 wings arc much finer and more expanfive than the foremoft, and are the 

 principal inftruments of its flight. The belly is large, compofed of 

 eight ringSj terminated by a forky tail, covered with down. When ex- 

 annined internally, befide the gullet, we difcover a fmall ftomach ; be- 

 hind that a very large one, wrinkled and furrowed withinGde ; lower 

 down is a third ; fo that it is not without probability animals of this order 

 are faid to chew the cud, as they fo much refemble ruminant animals ia 

 their internal conformation. 



Shortly after the grafshopper afTumes its wings, it fills the meadow 

 with its note, which is a call to courtlhip. The male only is vocal ; at 

 the bale of the wings is a little hole in its body, covered with a fine tranf^ 

 parent membrane. This Linnasus thought to be the inftrument it em- 

 ploys in finging ; others think the found is produced by rubbing its 

 hinder legs againft each other. The note of one male is feldom heard, 

 but it is anfwercd ; and the two little animals, after many mutual in- 

 fults of this kind, meet and fight defperately. The female is generally 

 the reward of viftory ; for, after the com.bar, the male feizes her with his 

 teeth behind the neck, and thus keeps her feveral hours flrongly united. 



Towards the end of autumn the female prepares to depofit her bur- 

 then ; flie is greatly diftended with eggs, to the number of an hundred 

 and fifty. Nature has furnilhed her with an inftrument at her tail, fome- 

 what refembling a two-edged fword, which (he can (heathe and un- 

 flieathe : with this fhe pierces the earth as deep as fhe is able, and in the 

 hole it has made fhe depofits her eggs, one after the other. She does 

 not long furvive; but, as the winter approaches, dries up and dies. 

 Som.e aflert fhe is killed by the cold ; others, that Ihe is eaten by 

 worms. Neither the male nor female ever furvive the winter. The 

 eggs are oval, white^ and horny j their fize nearly equals annifeed i they 



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