482 THE MIGRATORY LOCUST. 



through the earth, the muscular strength of the Mole Cricket is exceedingly great ; and 

 when the insect is held in the hand, its struggles for escape are apt to inflict rather sharp 

 scratches on the skin of the captor. 



The colour of the Mole Cricket is brown of different tints, darker upon the thorax 

 than on the wing-covers, both of which organs are covered with a very fine and short- 

 down. 



As might be surmised from the extraordinary muscular power of the fore-legs, the 

 Mole Cricket can burrow with great rapidity. The excavation is of a rather complicated 

 form, consisting of a moderately large chamber with neatly smoothed walls, and many 

 winding passages communicating with this central apartment. In the chamber are placed 

 from one to four hundred eggs of a dusky yellow colour ; and the roof of the apartment is 

 so near the surface of the ground that the warmth of the sunbeams penetrates through the 

 shallow layer of earth, and causes the eggs to be hatched. 



The food of the Mole Cricket is mostly of a vegetable nature, but it has been known 

 to feed upon raw meat, upon other insects, and even to exhibit a strong cannibalistic 

 propensity when shut up in company and deprived of the normal food. 



THERE is a singular species, called Schizoddctylus monstrosus, now common in the 

 insect cases sent from India, which is notable for the manner in which the enormously 

 long wings and their covers are rolled at their tips into spiral coils. This belongs to the 

 same family as the mole cricket, and like that insect is a burrower, making holes nearly a 

 yard in depth. 



The MIGRATORY LOCUST is a well-known instance of a very large family of insects 

 represented in our own land by many examples. All the Locusts and Grasshoppers are 

 vegetable feeders ; and in many cases their voracity is so insatiable, their jaws so powerful, 

 and their numbers so countless, that they destroy every vestige of vegetation wherever 

 they may pass, and devastate the country as if a fire had swept over it. 



Such is the case with the Migratory Locust, so called from its habit of congregating 

 in vast armies, which fly like winged clouds over the earth, and, wherever they alight, strip 

 every living plant of its verdure. So assiduously do they ply their busy jaws, that the 

 peculiar sound produced by the champing of the leaves, twigs, and grass-blades can be 

 heard at a considerable distance. When they take to flight, the rushing of their wings is 

 like the roaring of the sea ; and as their armies pass through the air, the sky is darkened 

 as if by black thunder clouds. 



The warm sunbeams appear to be absolutely necessary for the flight of the Locust, for 

 no sooner does the sun set than the Locusts alight and furl their wings. Woe to the ill- 

 fated spot where they settle, for they consume everything that their jaws can sever, and 

 are not content with eating the green herbage, but devour even linen, blankets, or 

 tobacco. At the approach of the aerial hosts every one is in fear except the Bushman, 

 who welcomes the Locust with all his heart ; for he has no crops to lose, no clothing to 

 be destroyed, and only sees in the swarming insects his greatest luxury, namely, an 

 abundant supply of food without any trouble in obtaining it. In the path of the Locust 

 he kindles large fires, and the insects, being stifled with the smoke, and having their 

 wings scorched by the flames, fall in thousands, and are gathered into heaps, roasted, and 

 eaten. Those that remain, after the Bushman has eaten his fill, are then ground between 

 two stones into a kind of meal, which is dried in the sun, and can be kept for a consider- 

 able period without becoming putrid. This substance does not seem to be very palatable to 

 Europeans, but its distastefulness is probably owing to the careless way in which the 

 insects are scorched over the fire, as Dr. Livingstone speaks quite highly of the Locust as 

 an article of food, thinking it superior to shrimps. Honey is always eaten together with 

 the Locusts, whenever that sweet condiment can be obtained, as it serves to render the 

 insects more digestible. 



Some persons dry the Locusts for winter food, and catch them in the early dawn before 

 the sunbeams have heated the air sufficiently to impart animation to these chilly 

 insects. They are swept into sacks as they hang in great clusters from the branches, and 



