168 ORTHOPTERA. 



the later accounts, that contained in Olivier's " Travels " 

 does not seem to have been quoted by English writers. The 

 following is a free translation of the passage. Olivier, at the 

 time of writing it, was in Syria. " After a burning south 

 wind had prevailed for some time, there came, from the 

 interior of Arabia and from the southern parts of Persia, 

 clouds of locusts, whose ravages in these countries are as 

 grievous and as sudden as the destruction occasioned in 

 Europe by the most severe hail-storm. Of these my com- 

 panion, M. Brugieres, and myself were twice witnesses. It 

 is difficult to describe the effect produced on us by the sight 

 of the whole atmosphere filled, on all sides, to a vast height, 

 with a countless multitude of these insects, which flew alon<* 



7 O 



with a slow and even motion, and with a noise like the dash- 

 ing of a shower of rain. The heavens were darkened by 

 them, and the light of the sun was sensibly diminished. In 

 a moment the roofs of the houses, the streets, and all the 

 fields were completely covered with these insects, and in two 

 days they almost entirely devoured the foliage of every plant. 

 Fortunately, however, they continued but a short time, and 

 seemed to have emigrated only for the purpose of providing 

 for a continuation of their kind. In fact, nearly all of them 

 which we saw on the next day were paired, and in a day or 

 two afterwards the ground was covered with their dead 

 bodies." * These were not the still more celebrated and 

 destructive migratory locusts (Locusta migratorid), but con- 

 sisted of the species called Acrydiurti peregrinum. 



Although the ravages of locusts in America are not fol- 

 lowed by such serious consequences as in the Eastern con- 

 tinent, yet they are sufficiently formidable to have attracted 

 attention, and not unfrequently have these insects laid waste 

 considerable tracts, and occasioned no little loss to the cul- 

 tivator of the soil. Our salt-marshes, which are accounted 

 among the most productive and valuable of our natural 

 meadows, are frequented by great numbers of the small red- 



* Olivier, Voyage dans 1'Erapire Ottoman, 1'Egypte et la Perse, Tom. II. p. 424. 



