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Histoi'y of Animal Plagues. i^y 



for some miles about, that the whole country — thouo;h it was 

 in the middle of summer, was left as bare and naked as if it had 

 been the depth of winter, making a most unseemly and, indeed, 

 frightful appearance ; and the noise they made whilst they were 

 seizing and devouring this their prey was as surprising, for the 

 grinding of the leaves in the mouths of this vast multitude alto- 

 gether made a noise very much resembling the sawing of timber.' 

 Every green thing was devoured by these animals, and ' out of 

 the gardens they got into the houses, where numbers of them, 

 crawling about, were very irksome.' And in the ensuing spring 

 of 1689 their 'spawn, which they lodged underground, next the 

 upper sod of the earth, did more harm in that close retirement 

 than all the flying swarms of their parents had done abroad, for 

 this vounsr destructive brood did not withhold from what was 

 much more necessary to have been spared,' but devoured ' the 

 roots of the corn and grass, and eating them up, ruined both 

 the support of man and beast.' The insect appears to have 

 been the Melolontha vulgaris, or common cockchafer. This 

 plague was checked as follows: 'High winds, wet and misly 

 weather, were extremely disagreeable to the nature of this insect, 

 and so prejudicial as to destroy many millions of them in one 

 day's time. . . . During; these unfavourable seasons of weather, 

 the swine and poultry of the country at length grew so cunning 

 as to watch under the trees for their falling,' and eat them in 

 abundance ; and the author was assured ' that the poorer sort of 

 the native Irish (the country then labouring under a scarcity of 

 provisions) had a way of dressing them, and lived upon them as 

 food.' It was also found that smoke was very offensive to them, 

 and therefore large numbers were got rid of ' by burning 

 heath, fern, and such like weeds,' in their vicinity. Towards 

 the end of summer they began to disperse; ^and so wholly dis- 

 appeared, that in a few days you should not see one left in all 

 those parts that was so lately pestered with them.' During the 

 ensuing spring 'great quantities of the eggs of this insect were 

 exposed, on ploughing or digging up the ground.' 



Rutty, describing this influenza in man, mentions that an 

 ' universal distemper seized the horses in J^ubliu.' ' 

 ' Jiuttv. History of the Weather and Seasons. 



