LOCUSTS AND GRASSHOPPERS. 209 



having' been exposed in infancy on the slopes of Mount 

 Citha?ron. 



The following description of the appearance and habits of 

 the locust, p. 599, by the same author is so graphic and true 

 that I feel constrained to give it in extenso : — 



" The appearance of a locust when at rest and when flying 

 is so different that the creature is at first sight scarcely 

 recognizable as the same creature. When at rest, it is a 

 compact and tolerably stout insect, with a dull though 

 delicately coloured body ; but when it takes flight it appears 

 to attain twice its previous dimensions. The front pair of 

 wings, which alone were seen before they were expanded, 

 became comparatively insignificant, while the hinder pair 

 which were before invisible, became the most prominent 

 part of the insect, their translucent folds ]:)eino- coloured with 

 the most brilliant hues, according to the species. The body 

 seems to have shrunk as the wings have increased, and to 

 have diminished to half its previous size, while the long legs 

 that previously were so conspicuous are stretched out like 

 the legs of a flying heron. 



" All the locusts are vegetable feeders, and do great harm 

 wherever they happen to be plentiful, their powerful jaws 

 severing even the thick grass stems as if cut by scissors. 

 But it is only when they invade a country that their real 

 power is felt. They come flying with the wind in such 

 multitudes that the sky is darkened as if by thunder clouds, 

 and when they settle, every vestige of green disappears from 

 off the face of the earth. Mr. Gordon Cumming once saw a 

 flight of these locusts. They often wheel three hundred 

 feet from the grounrl, and come on in thick solid masses, 

 forming one unbroken cloud. 



" On all sides nothing was to be seen but locusts. The air 

 was full of them, and the plain was covered with them, and 

 for more than an hour the insect army flew past him. 

 When the locusts settle, they eat with such voracity that the 

 sound caused by their jaws cutting the leaves and grass 

 can be heard at a great distance ; and then the young locusts, 

 which have no wings and are graphically termed by the 

 Dutch colonists of Southern Africa ' voet-gangers,' or foot- 

 goers, are little inferior in point of jaw to the fully developed 

 insect." 



As long as they have a favourable wind, nothing stops the 

 progress of the locusts. They press forward just like the 

 vast herds of antelopes that cover the plains of Africa, or the 



p 



