LECTURE IX. 
103 
metropolis itself j but as they were evidently 
driven out of their course by adverse winds, and 
were much weakened during their flight, they soon 
perished. Straggling specimens are from time to 
time observed, but happily this insect can hardly 
be fairly numbered among the regular native in- 
sects of England. Its general size may be ob- 
served in the figures we are now viewing, which 
are copied from those of the admirable Roesel, an 
artist of such transcendent excellence in his mode 
of representing the smaller animals, that in the 
words of Mr. Fuseli he may be said to have 
raised insect-painting almost to the dignity of 
History. 
A species of Locust of much larger size and 
of great beauty of colours is that called G. cris- 
tatus or the crested Locust, so named from the 
rising processes on the top of the back. This 
species is at least five or six times the size of the 
migratory or wandering Locust, and is a native of 
the Eastern regions. It is often salted, and used 
as an article of food in many parts of the Levant, 
and it is supposed that it was the food of saint 
John during his state of retirement- in the desert. 
It has indeed been sometimes supposed that the 
