COCK-CHAFER. 
255 
At this season an interesting writer describes them 
as rising from their long imprisonment, from living 
only upon roots, and imbibing only the moisture 
of the earth, to visit the mildness of the summer 
air, to choose the sweetest vegetables for their ban- 
quet, and to drink the dew of the evening. If an at- 
tentive observer then walk abroad, he will see them 
bursting up before him in his path-way, and every 
part of the earth that had its surface beaten into 
hardness, perforated by their egression. When the 
season is favourable for them, they are seen in the 
evening by myriads buzzing along, and, with a 
sort of capricious blindness, hitting against every 
object that intercepts their flight. 
These insects are the amusement of children, but 
the bane of husbandmen and gardeners ; for swarms 
of them occasionally appear, to the destruction of 
every vegetable in their neighbourhood. When 
they multiply in this manner they are as much to 
be dreaded as a flight of locusts, and the mischief 
they do is equally calamitous. An instance of their 
destructive power, when collected in large numbers, 
is recorded by Mr. Molineux, in the Philosophical 
Transactions for the year 1697. From this gen- 
tleman’s information, we learn that several districts 
in Ireland were overrun by these voracious insects, 
and that they were first noticed in the year 1688 . 
The account is altogether so singular and curious, 
that we shall beg leave to give it nearly in the 
words of the author. The flight of cock-chafers 
first appeared on the south-west coast of Galway, 
