NATURAL HISTORY. 45 
dries up, feems to feel the effects of age, and dies from a total decay, 
Some, however, affert, that fhe is killed by the cold; and others, that 
the is eaten by worms: but certain it is, that neither the male, nor 
emale are ever feen to furvive the winter. In the mean time the 
€ges which have been depofited, continue unaltered, either by the fe- 
Verity of the feafon, or the retardation of the fpring. They are of an 
val figure, white, and of the confiflence of horn; their fize nearly 
€quals that of a grain of anife; they are enveloped in the body within | 
4 covering, branched all over with veins and arteries; and when ex- 
cluded, they crack, on being prefled between the fingers; their fub- 
{tance within is a whitifh, vifcous, and traniparent fluid. In this man- 
fer they remain depofited beneath the furface of the earth, during the 
whole winter; till the genial retarn of {pring begins to vivify and hatch 
them. The fun, with its warmth, beginning to animate all Nature, 
the infea& eggs feel its benign influence ; and generally, about the be~ 
ginning of May, every egg produces an infect, about the fize of a flea, 
Thefe at firft are of a whitith colour; at the end of two or three 
days they turn black; and foon after they become of a reddifh brown. 
“hey appear, from the beginning, like grafshoppers wanting wings 5 
and hop among the grafs as foon as excluded, with great agility. 
Yet ftill they are by no means arrived at their fate of full perfec- | 
tion; although they bearya ftrong refemblance to the animal in its per- 
fe form. They want, or feem to want the wings, which they are at 
laft feen to aflume; and can only hop among the grafs, without being 
able to fly. The wings, however are not wanting, but are concealed 
Within four little bunches, that feem to deform the fides of the animal: 
there they lie rolled up in a moft curious manner; and occupying @ 
fmaller ipace than one would conceive who faw them extended. In- 
deed, all infe&s, whatever tranfmutations they feem to undergo, are 
Yet brought forth with thofe very limbs, parts and wings, which they 
afterwards feem to acquire. In the moft helplefs caterpillar, there is 
{ill to be feen the rudiments of that beautiful plumage which it after- 
Wards expands when a. butterfly: and though many new parts feem 
Unfolded to the view, the animal acquires none but fuch as it was from 
the beginning poflefled of. The grafshopper, therefore, though feem- 
gly without wings, is in reality, from the firft, pofletled of thofe inftru- 
Ments, and only waits for fufficient force to’ break the bonds, that hold 
them folded up, ‘and to give them their full expanfion. 
The grafshopper, that for above twenty days trom its exclufion has 
£ontinued without the ufe of its wings, which are folded up to its body, 
at length prepares for its emancipation, and for a life of greater liberty 
_ 8nd pleafure. To make the proper difpofitions for the approaching 
Shange, it ceafes from its grafly food, and feeks about for a convenient 
Place; beneath fome thorn or thiftle, that may protect it from an acciden- 
tal thower. The fame laborious writhings and workings, heavings 
and palpitations, which we have remarked in every other infect upon, 
an approaching change, are exhibited in this. It fwells up its head 
8nd neck; it then feems to draw them in again; and thus alternately, 
Or fome time, it exerts its powers to get free. At length, the fkin 
_ f9vering the head and breaft is feen dividing above the neck; the head 
1s feen ifuing out firft from the burfting fkin; the efforts ftill continu- 
48» the other parts follow fucceflively 5 fo that the little animal, with 
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