i26 TRUE TALES OF THE INSECTS. 



on the voyage from Bordeaux to Boston, when twelve 

 hundred miles from the nearest land, was boarded by a 

 swarm, the air being filled and the sails of the ship 

 covered with them for two days. The species proved 

 to be Acridium (Schist ocerca) peregrinum. This is a 

 most striking case, for locusts do not fly with rapidity, 

 being, indeed, as we have seen, chiefly borne by the 

 wind. It is possible some species may occasionally 

 come down on the water at night, proceeding some- 

 what after the fashion of " Voetgangers " when crossing 

 rivers as described by Mrs. Barber in such masses 

 as to buoy many without being submerged. An account 

 of an occurrence of the kind may be read in Sir Hans 

 Sloane's history of Jamaica, where it is stated that in 

 1649 locusts devastated the island of Teneriffe, that they 

 were seen to come from Africa on the wind, and that, 

 on the way over, they alighted on the water, in a heap 

 as big as the largest ship, and the next day, having 

 renewed their vigour under the influence of the sun, 

 they took flight again and landed in clouds at Teneriffe. 

 De Saussure says the great oceans are, as a rule, 

 impassable to locusts, and that not a single specimen of 

 the tribe Oedipodides has passed from the Old World 

 to the New. Nevertheless, it may be that Acridium 

 peregrinum, of the tribe Acridiides, was originally 

 native to America, and migrated from there to the 

 Old World. 



