The Dor. 555 
the leaves of all the trees, for several miles round, were 
destroyed, leaving the whole country, though it was near 
midsummer, as naked and desolate as it would have 
been in the middle of winter. The noise which these 
enormous swarms made, in seizing and devouring the 
leaves, was so loud, as to be compared to the distant 
sawing of timber. Swine and poultry destroyed them 
in vast numbers ; waiting under the trees for the clus- 
ters of insects to drop, and then devouring such swarms 
as to become fat upon them alone. Even the native 
Irish, from the insects having eaten up the whole pro- 
duce of the ground, adopted a mode of cooking them, 
and thus used them as food. Towards the end of the 
summer they disappeared so suddenly that in a few days 
there was not one left. 
Eooks are very fond of eating these grubs, and often, 
when they are seen in a newly-sown field, apparently 
devouring the grain, they are, in fact, rendering the 
greatest service to the farmer, by destroying his great 
enemy, the white worm. 
THE DOE, OR BLIND BEETLE. 
(Geotrujpes stercorarius.) 
This well-known insect, which is sometimes also called 
" the shard-borne beetle," has been often noticed by the 
poets. Amongst others, Shakespeare makes Macbeth 
say: 
" Ere to black Hecate's summons 
The shard-borne beetle, with its drowsy hum, 
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done 
A deed of dreadful note." 
This beetle, which is a British insect, lays its eggs in 
a mass of cow-dung, which it afterwards buries in the 
earth. It makes a dull drowsy noise when it flies, and 
often strikes itself against any person or object it may 
meet, as though it were blind. It has also the habit of 
stretching out its limbs and pretending to be dead when 
eaueht. 
