THE MIGRATORY LOCUST. 495 



midst of their song, and retire backward nimbly into their burro wa, 

 where they lurk till all suspicion of danger is over. 



It is remarkable, that, though these insects are furnished with long 

 legs behind, and brawny thighs adapted for leaping, yet, when driven 

 from their holes, they show no activity, but crawl along in so lifeless 

 a manner as easily to be caught. And though they are provided with 

 a curious apparatus of wings, yet they never exert them, even when 

 th:ro seems to be the greatest occasion. The males only make their 

 shrill noise, perhaps out of rivalry and emulation; as is the case 

 with many animals, which exert some sprightly note during then 

 breeding-time. 



THE MIGRATORY LOCUST. 



Syria, Egypt, Persia, and almost all the south of Asia, are subject 

 to a calamity as dreadful as volcanoes and 

 earthquakes are to other countries, in being 

 ravaged by those clouds of Locusts, so often 

 mentioned by travellers. The quantity of 

 these insects is incredible to all, who have 

 not themselves witnessed their astonishing 

 numbers: the whole earth is covered with 

 them, for the space of several leagues. The 

 noise they make in browsing on the trees and 

 herbage, may be heard at a great distance, 

 and somewhat resembles that of an army 

 foraging in secret. The Tartars themselves are a less destructive 

 enemy than these animals. One would imagine, wherever they have 

 been seen, that fire had followed their progress. Wherever their 

 myriads spread, the verdure of the country disappears, as if a curtain 

 had been removed : trees and plants are stripped of their leaves, and 

 are reduced to their naked boughs and stems; so that the dreary 

 image of winter succeeds, almost in an instant, to the rich scenery of 

 the spring. When these clouds of Locusts take their flight, the 

 heavens may sometimes literally be said to be obscured by them. 

 Happily this calamity is not frequently repeated ; for it is the inevi- 

 table forerunner of famine. The inhabitants of Syria have remarked, 

 that Locusts are always increased by too mild winters, and that they 

 contantly 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 herbage 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 offj by rais- 

 ing large clouds of smoke ; but frequently their herbs and wet straw 

 fail them. They then dig trenches, where numbers of the insects are 

 buried : but the most efficacious destroyers are the south and south 

 easterly winds, and the Locust-eating Thrushes. These birds follow 

 them in numerous flocks like Sterlings, and not only greedily devour 



M011ATORT 



