242 Grasshopper Locust, Etc. 



41. It is the male Grasshopper which does all the 

 chirping. He does not, however, chirp or sing as a bird 

 does, with his voice or his throat. He makes his peculiar 

 sound with his wings, and partly, some people say, with 

 his legs and a kind of little drum or cymbal. 



42. In the autumn, the mother Grasshopper bores or 

 digs little holes in the ground and lays a great many eggs 

 in them, and on the approach of frost she dies. The eggs 

 remain there all winter and are hatched out by the warm 

 sun of spring. For a while the young ones hop only, and 

 seem to be without wings, but these are really concealed 

 on their sides and appear when the time comes. 



43. LOCUSTS are the most destructive of this 

 kind of Insects. They fly in vast numbers, like 

 clouds which hide the sun, and come down on 

 the growing crops of spring as fast and as num- 

 berless as snowflakes in a winter's stonn. 



44. Their visits in Western Asia and Northern Africa 

 are terrible, for they are sure to leave famine and desola- 

 tion behind them. The Locusts, called also Grasshop- 

 pers, which they resemble, have at times done great dam- 

 age to the corn of some of our Northwestern States and 

 Territories. 



45. Locusts are sold in the markets of Europe, Asia 

 and Africa as an article of food. 



46. The "SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUST " (more 

 correctly called HARVEST FLY) has a thicker 

 body and shorter legs than the Locust or the 

 Grasshopper. It flies, but does not leap. 



