178 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Mr. Barrow's account of 



remained after casting their sloughs, they re- 

 turned to their former greediness, with an addi- 

 tion both of strength and agility. But they did 

 not long continue in this state before they were 

 entirely dispersed. After laying their eggs, they 

 directed their course northward, and probably 

 perished in the sea. 



Mr. Barrow says, that in the part of the coun- 

 try where he was in 1797, for an area of nearly 

 two thousand square miles, the whole surface of 

 the ground might literally be said to be covered 

 with them. The water of a very wide river was 

 scarcely visible on account of the carcases that 

 floated on the surface, drowned in the attempt 

 to come at the reeds that grew in it. They had 

 devoured every blade of gras, and every green 

 herb except the reeds. They are not, however, 

 without a choice in their food. When they at^ 

 tack a field of corn just come into ear, this gen^ 

 tleman says, they first mount to the summit, and 

 pick out every grain before they touch the leave* 

 and stem. The insect seems to be constantly in 



v 



motion, and always to have some object in view. 

 When the larvae, for these are much more vora- 

 cious than the perfect insects, are on a march 

 during the day, it is utterly impossible to turn 

 the direction of the troop which is generally with 

 the wind. Towards the setting of the sun the 

 march is discontinued, when the troop divides 

 into companies that surround the small shrubs 

 or tufts of grass, or ant-hills, and in such thick 



