296 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
grass and low bushes, especially in the south of England. It is about 2 inches in length. 
Among the foreign species of this rather extensive family, we may mention some green or 
reddish South American species, with a large round spot on the hind wings, not unlike those seen 
in the peacock-butterfly. 
The last family includes the SHORT-HORNED GRASSHOPPERS, or TRUE LOcuUSTS, so 
very destructive in many countries, 
! ' though the real MIGRATORY Locusts 
are only casual visitors to England, 
the native British species being all 
small insects, found among grass, 
and doing but little damage. The 
commonest of the Migratory Locusts 
visiting Britain is the RED-LEGGED 
Locust, which expands from 2 to 4 
inches, and has grey wing-cases varied 
with brown, pale green hind wings, 
and red hind shanks, with white 
black-tipped spines. Another species, 
the EGyprian Locust, more rarely 
met with, has brown fore wings, and 
grey hind wings, crossed by a broad 
blackish band. Two photographs are 
given on page 693 of a specimen 
brought to England among vegetables 
in the spring of 1901. Many foreign 
locusts, large and small, have beauti- 
ful red or blue hind wings, and some 
of these are commonon the Continent, 
though not in England; those found 
in Europe are comparatively small, 
measuring only I or 2 inches across 
the wing-cases; but some of the great 
South American locusts measure as 
much as 7 or 8 inches in expanse. 
However, some of the smaller species, 
such as the CypRIAN LocusT and 
the Rocky MOUNTAIN LocustT,which 
measure less than 2 inches across 
the wing-cases, are much more de- 
structive than the large species. 
A real invasion of locusts is a 
terrible calamity, for the insects fly 
Pesky Wo TesiieeDuc lier th like birds, but in vast flocks, and de- 
WART-EATING GRASSHOPPER (TWO VIEWS)  vour every scrap of vegetation where 
Used by Swedish peasants to bite off their warts they settle. Sometimes a flight, two 
or three miles broad, continues to fly 
steadily over the same spot for hours together. Sometimes flocks perish at sea, and are cast 
up on the beach in heaps like sand-hills, extending for a distance of forty or fifty miles. Nor are 
the young locusts less destructive before they acquire wings; for they march across a district in 
such numbers as to extinguish fires, fill up trenches, and overcome all similar obstacles placed in 
their way by sheer force of numbers; and it is well said of a visitation of locusts, ‘‘ The land is 
as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind is a desolate wilderness.” 
