THE LOCUST. 181 



Description Vast quantities. 



THE LOCUST. 



'. '(i^iRKJ 



THIS insect is about three inches long, and 

 has two horns, or feelers, an inch in length. The 

 head and horns are of a hrownish colour; it is 

 blue about the mouth and also on the inside of 

 the larger legs : the shield that covers the hack 

 is greenish; the upper side of the body brown, 

 spotted with black, and the under side puiple: 

 the upper wings are brown, with small dusky 

 spots, with one larger at the tips; the under 

 wings are more transparent, and of a light brown 

 tinctured with green, with a dark cloud of spots 

 near the tips. See fig. 7, in the insect plate. 

 They seldom visit Europe in such dangerous 

 swarms, yet in some of the southern kingdoms 

 they appear very formidable. Those which 

 have, at intervals, visited Europe, are supposed 

 to have come from Africa, and is called the 

 great brown locust. y$ 



The quantity of these insects is incredible to 

 all who have not witnessed their astonishing 

 numbers: the whole earth is covered with them 

 foivhe space of several leagues. The noise they 

 make in browzing on the trees and herbage may 

 be heard at a great distance, and resembles that 

 of an army foraging in secret. One would ima- 

 gine, wherever they have been seen, that fire had 

 followed their progress. Wherever their myriads 

 spread, the verdure of the country disappears, as 



