or INSECTS* 
335 
size of a hen's egg, closed up on every side, and within 
as large as two hazel nuts. The eggs, amounting to 
nearly a hundred and fifty, are white, and about the size 
of caraway comfits; they are carefully covered, as well 
to defend "them from the injuries of the weather as from 
the attacks of one of the species of black beetles, which 
often destroys them. The female places herself near 
the entrance of the nest, and, whenever the beetle at- 
tempts to seize its prey, the guardian insect catches it 
behind, and bites it asunder. 
These insects at the approach of winter, remove their 
nest to so great a depth in the earth as to have it always 
lower than the frost can penetrate. When the mild sea- 
son comes on, they raise it in proportion to the advances 
of that favourable time, and at last elevate it so near to 
the surface as to render it susceptible both of air and 
sunshine; and if the frost return, they again sink it to 
its proper depth. A method very similar is practised by 
the ants with their nests. 
Common Locust. (PI. 55.) This insect is about three 
inches long, and has two horns or feelers, an inch in 
length. The head and horns are of a brownish colour; 
it is blue about the mouth, and also on the inside of the 
larger legs: the shield that covers the back is greenish; 
the upper side of the body brown, spotted with black, and 
the under side purple; the upper wings are brown, with 
small dusky spots, with one larger at the tips; the under 
wings are more transparent, and of a light brown, tinc- 
tured with green, with a dark cloud of spots near the 
tips. 
These noxious insects fly in such numbers, as to seem 
at a distance like a dark cloud, which, as it approaches, 
almost excludes the light of day. It often happens that 
the husbandman sees them pass over without doing him 
any injury; but in this case they only proceed to settle 
on some less fortunate country. Wherever they alight, 
they make dreadful havoc among the vegetation. In the 
tropical climates their presence is not attended with such 
destructive consequences as in the southern parts of Eu- 
rope; for in those, the vegetative power is so strong and 
