LOCUSTS AND GRASSHOPPERS. 211 



mentions the use of the locusts as an article of diet and the 

 way in which the said creatures are prepared for food by the 

 jSTasamones. 



Palgrave, in his Central and Eastern Arabia^ gives a 

 description of the custom of eating locusts. 



Mansfield Parkyns, in his Life in Abyssinia^ mentions that 

 the true Abyssinian will not eat the locust, but that the 

 negroes and Arabs do so. 



Signor Pierotti, in his Customs and Traditions of Palestine, 

 states that locusts are really excellent food, and that he was 

 accustomed to eat them, not from necessity, but from choice, 

 mid compares their flavour to that of shrimps : and Dr. 

 Livingstone makes a similar comparison. 



The article in the Encyclopiedia Britannica on locusts 

 may also be read with profit (vol. xiv, pp. 765-767), and 

 which contains well executed figures of some of the most 

 •destructive species, to wit, Fachytyles migrator ius, Acridium 

 peregrinum, and Calopterus italicus, and the paragraphs on 

 Orthoptera in Kirby's Text Book of -Entomology should 

 similarlv be consulted. 



Discussiox. 



The Chairman. — I think we are all indebted to Di\ Walker 

 •for his interesting and learned paper, and particularly so as many 

 of the insects referred to are illusti'ated before us by his own 

 specimens. 



I hope there are some j^resent who will be able to further 

 pursue the sabject. May I ask Mr. Kirby if he will give us any 

 remarks on the subject that may occur to him, as h^ 

 authority on the matter ? 



Mr. Kirby, F.L.S. — I may say that I have listened with much 

 interest to Dr. Walker's paper. There are a few points upon which 

 I may be able to throw a little more light. 



In respect to "grasshopper" and "locust" the terms are 

 popular and almost synonymous. Popularly the smaller insects 

 are called "grasshoppers" and the larger ones "locusts." 

 There is really no very definite distinction between them — the 

 former having long antennse, or feelers, and the other, short ones. 



P 2 



