420 GRYLLUS. 



imwieldlnefs in t'le months of January and February .---^ 

 This locuft, which is reckoned a gn at delicacy both by 

 the rich and poor, is eaten frefli after being broiled on the 

 coals ; It is of the frAC of the top of the finger, and as 

 long as the firft joint ; inhabits tlic low grounds, where 

 it breeds, till the winter feafon, when it fpveads over the 

 country in vaft fwarms. In all countries where the lo- 

 cuft is an article of food, it is regularly brouglit to rr.ar- 

 ket, like (licll-fifli or fmall birds in Europe. They mull 

 have conftituted a common food among the yexvs, iince 

 Mofesy their lawgiver, has condefcended to fpecify the 

 different kinds which they were permitted to eat *. 



From participating of this luxury of the jfews, howe- 

 ver, the inhabitants of Britain may deem themfelves hap- 

 py in being excluded. Since the year 1748, none of the 

 deftrudive fpecies have vifited this ifland : At that peri" 

 od, the great brown locuft was feen in feveral parts of 

 England, and many dreadful confequences were appre- 

 hended from its appearance. The body of this infe6l is 

 about three inches long ; the antennae are extended about 

 one third of this length from the head, which is brown. 

 The fhield which covers the back is greenifh ; th"S upper 

 fide of the body is brown, fpotted with black, and the 

 under fide is purple. 



The great Weji Indian locuft, of all the animals of this 

 genus, is the moft formidable, when individually confi- 

 dered. The body is about the thicknefs of a goofe quill, 

 divided into ten annuli, and is fix inches in length : It 

 has two fmall eyes ftanding out of the head, like tliofe of 



crabs 



* Vide Levit. chap. xl. v. %%. Even thefe thou rnayeft eat ; the locuft 

 after his kind ; the hald locua after his khid ; the beetle after his kind ; 

 and the grafliopper after Jiis kind. 



