386 THE GRASSHOPPER, &C. 



length they leave off their grassy sustenance, and place 

 themselves under either a thistle or a thorn, and begin 

 making those laborious exertions which every animal 

 is obliged to use for the purpose of getting rid of its 

 skin, and at length leaves it fixed to the thorn or this- 

 tle, and in a short time afterwards takes its flight. 



The chirping of the grasshopper, like the notes of 

 different birds, generally issues from the voice of the 

 male, and is considered as a call of tenderness, though 

 the female is never known to make any reply. 



The locusts, which were formerly so destructive to 

 vegetation, and which the Scriptures describe as being 

 sent as a scourge, are doubtless a species of the com- 

 mon grasshopper, though they may probably exceed 

 them in size. In seventeen hundred and forty-eight, 

 some of them were seen in England, which filled the 

 minds of the inhabitants with the utmost alarm ; and 

 in Poland, Lithuania, Barbary, and Russia, they have, 

 at different periods, overspread the country in such 

 numbers as to resemble black clouds, destroying every 

 species of verdure and vegetation, and never leaving 

 their stations until they had deposited their eggs, which 

 the natives destroyed either by fire or water, and by 

 that means escaped their destructive effects. 



From the locust we descend to the house-cricket, a 

 creature perfectly inoffensive in its kind, yet whose 

 chirping voice has given rise to a variety of supersti- 

 tions, to which the lower class of people are naturally 

 inclined. This animal bears a strong resemblance to 

 the grasshopper, not only in its appearance, but in the 

 sound of its voice ; yet, from the variety of its food, 

 the colour differs, as its skin is of a rusty brown, in- 

 stead of green. 



The house-cricket is allowed to be of a very cold con- 



