NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Locusts encreascd by too mild winters. 



if a curtain had been removed : trees and plants 

 are stripped of their leaves, and reduced to their 

 naked boughs and stems ; so that the dreary 

 image oi' winter succeeds in an instant to the rich 

 scenery of the spring. When these clouds of 

 locusts take their flight, to surmount any obsta- 

 cle, or to traverse more rapidly a desert soil, the 

 heavens may literally be said to be obscured 

 by them. It is confidently asserted, that when 

 locusts take the field, they have a leader at their 

 head whose flight they observe, and pay a strict 

 attention to all his motions. The inhabitants of 

 Syria have remarked that locusts are always in- 

 creased by too mild winters, and that they con- 

 stantly come from the desert of Arabia. From 

 this observation it is easy to conceive that the 

 cold, not having been rigorous enough to destroy 

 their eggs, they multiply suddenly; and, the her- 

 bage failing them in the immense plains of the 

 desert, innumerable legions issue forth. When 

 they make their first appearance on the frontiers 

 of the cultivated country, the inhabitants attempt 

 to drive them off, by raising large clouds of 

 smoke; but frequently their herbs and wet straw 

 fail them. They then dig trenches, where num- 

 bers of the insects are buried: but the most effi- 

 cacious destroyers are the south and south-east- 

 erly winds, and the locust-eating thrushes. 



These noxious insects, when they take to 

 flight, seem at a distance like a dark cloud, 

 which, as it approaches, almost excludes the 



