200 THE REV. F. A. WALKER, DA)., F.L.S., ON 



spondiug English equivalent. And, moreover, the Latin 

 names of the different genera and species in common use 

 among scientists did not then exist as we possess them. 

 Besides, Avhat avails it that all the Mediterranean species of 

 Orthoptera or those elsewhere also have each its English 

 and its Latin name assigned, when we have no means of 

 determining, either now or hereafter, the particular species 

 designated by each different Hebrew word? No character- 

 istics, either superficial or structural, are given to serve as 

 an aid Avhereby to solve the difficulty. All that we are 

 enabled to state witli any measure of confidence is that we 

 know what two species were Acridium iieregrinurn, the locust 

 of the plague of Egypt mentioned in Exodus x, verses 4 to 6, 

 and again, verses 12 to 15, and TruxaUs nasiita, in all 

 probability the bald locust of Leviticus xi, 22. N'asuta, of 

 course, means " with snout or proboscis," and the term 

 " bald " may have been bestowed in consequence of its 

 elongated neck, head, and snout being almost of one 

 uniform size and thickness — no lateral enlargement of 

 head or goggle-eyes, as in the case of other species; and 

 in quoting Leviticus xi, 22, it will be apropos to remark that 

 the said passage may well be regarded as a locus classicus 

 whereon to ground some remarks about the inevitable 

 difficulties that befel the translators of the A.V. Four 

 species, we are therein told, were permissible as an article 

 of food. " Even, of these ye may eat ; the locust after his 

 kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle* 

 after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind." 



What was the locust after his kind ? Probably the locust 

 of the plague of Egypt, Acridium peregrinum, as the species 

 at once by for the most abundant and destructive and the 

 one that the Israelites would be the most likely to encounter 

 of the four species here recorded. What w^as the bald locust ? 

 Probably, from its singular shape, the TruxaUs nasuta above 

 spoken of, and which I myself have captured in Corsica and 

 elsewhere. 



What was the beetle after his kind? Certainly not a 

 beetle at all. Apart from the fact that the large majority 

 of Coleoptera would afford absolutely no nutriment what- 

 ever, that the epidermis of the large majority of Coleoptera 

 is entirely horny, it is well nigh a certainty that the beetle 



* Cricket, R.V., four kinds of locusts or grasshoppers which are not 

 certainly known. 



