THE MIGRATORY LOCUST. 28* 



<s One of these crickets, when confined in a pa- 

 per cage, set in the sun, and supplied with plants 

 moistened with water, will feed and thrive ; and 

 become so merry and loud as to render it irksome 

 to be in the same room with it. If the plants are 

 not wetted it will die *." 



THE MIGRATORY LOCUST f. 



Syria, Egypt, Persia, and almost all the south of 

 Asia, are subject to a calamity as dreadful as vol- 

 canoes and earthquakes are to other countries, in 

 being ravaged by those clouds of locusts, so often 

 mentioned by travellers. The quantity of these in- 

 sects 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 browzing on the 

 trees and herbage may be heard at a great distance, 

 and resembles that of an army foraging in secret. 

 The Tartars themselves are a less destructive enemy 

 than these animals. One would imagine, where- 

 ever they have been seen, that fire had followed 

 their progress. Wherever their myriads spread, the 

 verdure of the country disappears, as it a curtain 

 had been removed : trees and plants are stripped of 

 their leaves, and reduced to their naked boughs 

 and stems ; so that the dreary image of winter 



* Natural History of Selborne. 

 f Synonyms.— Gryllus migratorius. L/»».— — Locust, var, 



