LOCUST. 
311 
regarded them, till in the month of May they were 
covered by the shooting of the corn. These proved 
to be the same pests under a different form ; for in 
the month of June, when the spring corn had grown 
to a tolerable height, they began to spread over the 
fields and destroy the vegetation. It was now too 
late to extirpate them ; they had dispersed them- 
selves in every direction, and could by no means 
be destroyed. At this time they resembled com- 
mon grasshoppers, and were generally about a fin- 
ger’s length ; but towards the end of June they 
cast their skin and plainly discovered their wings, 
which they gradually unfolded with their hind 
feet ; and as soon as any of them found themselves 
able to fly they left the ground, and soaring round 
the others enticed them to follow. Thus their 
numbers daily increasing, they took circular flights 
of twenty or thirty yards, until they were joined by 
the rest ; when they miserably laid waste their na- 
tive fields, and then proceeded elsewhere. Where- 
ever these swarms happened to pitch, they spared 
no sort of vegetable ; every green thing was totally 
destroyed, and nothing could present a more dismal 
sight than the lands which gave them birth : they 
were literally stripped of every thing that bore the 
least appearance of a vegetable, and the ground was 
left perfectly bare. 
Barbary was invaded by a host of these pesti- 
ferous insects in the year 1724: at that time Dr. 
Shaw was travelling in the country, and saw the 
dreadful effects of their visitation. They made 
