THE GliASSnOFPEli 15 



stalks and stubs. . . . Their flight may be likened to an immense 

 snowstorm, extending from the ground to a height at which our 

 visual organs perceive them only as minute, darting scintillations, 

 leaving the imagination to picture them indefinite distances beyond. 

 ... In alighting, they circle in myriads aljout you, beating against 

 everything animate or inanimate — driving into open doors and win- 

 dows ; heaping about your feet and around your Ijuildings, their jaws 

 constantly at work, biting and testing all things in seeking what they 

 can devour." 



The locusts of the Old World are likewise frequentlj^ very 

 destructive. The species that lives in southern Europe, North 

 Africa, Asia Minor, Sjo-ia, Java, and Japan is doubtless the 

 locust of the Bible. The description given by the prophet 

 Joel is very vivid and accurate : — 



" A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick 

 darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains ; a great people 

 and a strong ; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any 

 more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire de- 

 voureth before them, and behind them a flame iDurneth : the laud is as 

 the garden of Eden Ijefore them, and behind them a desolate wilder- 

 ness ; j^ea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them 

 is as the appearance of horses ; and as horsemen, so shall the}' run. 

 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains sliall they leap, 

 like the noise of a flame of fire that de^^oureth the stubble, as a strong 

 people set in Ijattle array. Before their face the people shall he much 

 pained ; all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like might)' 

 men ; they shall climb the wall like men of war ; and they sliall march 

 every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks. . . . 

 They shall run to and fro in the city ; they shall run upon the wall ; 

 they shall climb up upon the houses ; they shall enter in at the 

 windows like a thief." 



General Development of the Grasshopper. — The common 

 red-legged grasshopper lays its eggs during autumn in holes 

 in the ground two and three centimetres deep. The holes are 



