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than all the flying swarms of their parents 
had done abroad; for tliis destructive 
brood, lying under ground, eat up the roots 
of corn and grass, and thus consumed the 
support both of man and beast. This plague 
was happily checked several ways. High 
winds, and wet inisling weather, destroyed 
many millions of them in a day ; and wiien 
this constitution of the air prevailed, they 
were so enfeebled that they would let go 
their hold, and drop to the ground from the 
branches, and so little a fall as this was suf- 
ficient quite to disable, and sometimes per- 
fectly kill them. Nay, it w'as observable, 
that even when they were most vigorous, a 
shght blow would for some time stun them, 
if not deprive them of life. During these 
unfavourable seasons of the weather, the 
swine and poultry of the countiy would 
watch under the trees for their falling, and 
feed and fatten upon them ; and even the 
poorer sort of the country people, the coun- 
try then labouring under a scarcity of pro- 
vision, had a way of dressing them, and 
lived upon them as food. In a little time 
it was found, that smoke was another thing 
very offensive to them, and by burning 
heath, fern, &c. the gardens were secured, 
or if the insects had already entered, they 
were thus driven out again. Towards the 
latter end of summer, they returned of 
themselves, and so totally disappeared, that 
in a few days you could not see one left. 
A year or two ago, all along the south-west 
coast of the county of Galway, for some 
miles together, there were found dead on 
the shore such infinite multitudes of them, 
and in such vast heaps, that, by a moderate 
estimate, it was computed there could not 
be less than forty or fifty horse-loads in all; 
which was a new colony, or a supernume- 
rary swarm, from the same place whence 
the first stock came, in 1688 , driven by the 
wind from their native land, which I con- 
clude to be Normandy, or Britany, in 
France, it being a country much infested 
with this insect, and from whence England 
heretofore has been pestered in a similar 
manner, with swarms of this vermin ; but 
these, meeting with a contrary wind before 
they could land, were stopped, and, tired 
with the voyage, were all driven into the 
sea, which, by the motion of its waves and 
tides, cast their floating bodies in heaps on 
the shore. It is observed, that they sel- 
dom keep above a year together in a place, 
and then' usual stages, or marches, are com- 
puted to be about six miles iu a year. Hi- 
therto their progress has been westerly, fol- 
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lowing the course of that wind w'hich blows 
most commonly in this country.” 
The larva of this insect is eagerly sought 
after aud devoured by swine, bats, crows, 
and poultry : it is said to be two or three 
years in passing from its first form into that 
of the perfect insect. The eggs are laid in 
small detached heaps, beneath the surface 
of some clod, and the young, when first 
hatched, are scarcely more than the eighth 
ot an inch in length, gradually advancing in 
their growth, and occasionally shifting their 
skins, till they arrive at the length of nearly 
two inches. At this period they begin to 
prepare for their change into a chrysalis or 
pupa, selecting for the purpose some small 
clod of earth, in which they form a cavity, 
and after a certain time, divest themselves 
of their last skin, and immediately appear 
in the pupa state ; in this they continue till 
the succeeding summer, when the beetle 
emerges from its retirement, and commits 
its depredations on the leaves of trees, 
breeds, and deposits its eggs in a favourable 
situation, after which its life is of very short 
duration. If the larva appear in autumn in 
considerable quantities, they are said to 
prognosticate epidemic disorders. 
A species of great beauty is the S. aura- 
tus, or golden beetle, about the size of the 
common or black garden beetle ; the co- 
lour is most brilliant, varnished, aud of a 
golden-green. This is a fine object for the 
magnifying glass. It is not very uncommon 
during the hottest parts of summer, fre- 
quenting various plants and flowers ; its lar- 
va is commonly found in the hollows of old 
trees, or among the loose dry soil at then- 
roots, and sometimes in the earth of ant- 
hills. 
Mr. Donovan has described,, among his 
English insects, the S. stercorariiis, or clock- 
beetle, which flies about in an evening, in a 
circular direction, with a loud buzzing 
noise, and is said to foretel a fine day. It 
was consecrated by the Egyptians to Are 
sun ; is infested with the acariis and ichneu- 
mon ; the body is often coloured with a 
bluish or greenish gloss, sometimes brassy 
beneath ; shells frequently dull, rufous. 
SCARIFICATION, in surgery, the ope- 
ration of making several incisions in the 
skin by means of lancets, or other instru- 
ments, particularly the cupping instru- 
ment. 
SCARP, iu fortification, is the interior 
talus, or slope of the ditch next the place, 
at the foot of the rampart. 
Scarp, in heraldry, the scarf which raili- 
