When leeches are to be applied, the best waj is to take them from the water in which they are contained about an hour before, for they thus bdeome more voracious, and fasten more readily. When saturated with blood, they generally fall off of themselves; but if it be thought ne- cessary to take them from the wound, care should be used to pull them very gently, or even to sprinkle them with salt if they continue to adhere: for if they be plucked rudely away, it most frequently happens that they leave their teeth in the wound, which makes a very trouble- some inflammation, and is often attended with danger. If they be slow in fixing to the part, they are often enticed by rubbing it with milk or blood, or water mixed with sugar. As salt is a poison to most insects, many people throw it upon the leech when it has dropped from the wound, by which means it disgorges the blood it has swallowed, and it is then kept for repeated application. They seldom, however, stick after this operation ; and as the price is but small, fresh leeches should always be ap- plied whenever such an application is thought necessary^ BOOK II. INSECTS OF THE SECOND ORDER. CHAP. I. OF THE SECOND ORDER OF INSECTS. In the former part we gave a concise history of the most considerable insects that, without wings, were produced in a perfect state; either from the body of the parent alive, like quadrupeds, or from the egg, in the manner of birds. We come now to a second order of insects, that are pro- duced from the egg, like the former, but not in a perfect state; for when first excluded, they are without wings. This, however, does not hinder the exercise of their ani- mal functions ; the insect, although not yet come to per- fection, walks, leaps, and eats ; nor is it ever deprived of motion, only that it rests a little when it is about to cast that part of its skin previous to its state of perfection. It is then seen to assume two wings, which, like a budding flower, burst through the case that contained them, and the animal becomes a winged insect in its state of highest perfection. To this order we may refer the Libella, or Dragon-Fly; the Formica Leo, or Lion-Ant ; the Grass- hopper; the Locust; the Cricket; the Wood-Cricket; the Mole-Cricket; the Flea-Locust; the Flying-Bug; the Tipula ; the Water-Scorpion; the Notonecta, or Water-Fly ; and many others. CHAP. II. OF THE LIBELLA, OR DRAGON-FLY. OF all the flies which adorn or diversify the face of na- ture, these are the most various and the most beautiful ; vol. iv.— *47. 2 C A HISTORY OF 198 they are of all colours ; green, blue, crimson, scarlet, white : some unite a variety of the most vivid tints, and exhibit in one animal more different shades than are to be found in the rainbow. They are called, in different parts of the kingdom, by different names ; but none can be at a loss to know them, as they are distinguished from all other flies by the length of their bodies, by the largeness of their eyes, and the beautiful transparency of their wings, which are four in number. They are seen in summer flying with great rapidity near every hedge, and by every running brook; they sometimes settle on the leaves of plants, and sometimes keep for hours together on the wing. Dragon-flies, though there are three or four different kinds, yet agree in the most striking parts of their history, and one account may serve for all. The largest sort are generally found from two to three inches long; their tail is forked; their body divided into eleven rings; their eyes are large, horny, and transparent, divided by a number of intersections ; and their wings, that always lie flat when they are at rest, are of a beautiful glossy transparency ; sometimes shining like silver, and sometimes glistening like gold. Within the mouth are to be seen two teeth covered with a beautiful lip ; with these the creatures bite fiercely when they are taken : but their bite is perfectly harmless, as I have experienced more than once. These insects, beautiful as they are, are produced from eggs, which are deposited in the water, where they remain for some time without seeming life or motion. They are ejected by the female into the water in clusters, like a bunch of grapes, where they sink to the bottom by their natural weight, and continue in that state till the young ones find strength enough to break the shell, and to sepa- rate from each other. The form in which they first shew life, is that of a worm with six legs, bearing a strong re- semblance to the dragon-fly in its winged state, except that the wings are yet concealed within a sheath peculiar to this animal. The rudiments of these appear in bunches on the back, within which the wings are folded up into each other, while all the colours and varieties of painting appear trans- parent through the skin. These animals, upon quitting the egg, still continue in the water, where they creep and swim, but do not move swiftly. They have likewise a THE DRAGON FLY. 199 sharp sight, and immediately sink to the bottom, if any one comes to the places wherein they live, or whenever they perceive the least uncommon object. Their food at that time is soft mud and the glutinous earthy substances that are found at the bottom. When these animals prepare to change from their rep- tile to their flying state, they then move out of the water to a dry place; as into grass ; to pieces of wood, stone, or any thing else they meet with. They there firmly fix their acute claws ; and, for a short time, continue quite immoveable, as if meditating on the change they are to undergo. It is then observed, that the skin first opens on the head and back; and out of this opening they exhibit their real head and eyes, and at length their six legs ; whilst, in the mean time, the hollow and empty skin, or slough of their legs, remains firmly fixed in its place. After this, the enclosed creature creeps forward by degrees ; and by this means draws first its wings and then its body out of the skin ; and proceeding a little far- ther, sits at rest for some time, as if immoveable. Dur- ing this time, the wings, which were moist and folded, begin by degrees to expand themselves, and to make smooth and even all those plaits which were laid against each other, like a closed fan. The body is likewise in- sensibly extended, until all the limbs have obtained their proper size and dimensions. All these surprising and difficult operations are accomplished by the force of the blood and the circulating humours. The creature can- not at first make use of its new wings, and therefore is forced to stay in the same place until all its limbs are dried by the circumambient air. It soon, however, begins to enter upon a more noble life than it had hitherto led in the bottom of the brook ; and from creeping slowly and living accidentally, it now wings the air, and makes choice from amidst the variety of its provisions.* Indeed, no animal is more amply fitted for motion, sub- sistence, and enjoyment. As it haunts and seeks after its food flying in the air, Nature has provided it with two * During the grub-state of this animal, it preys with the most savage ferocity on all aquatic insects. It is, likewise, at this period, furnished with an apparatus at the end of the body, by which it can suck up and eject water with considerable force. A HISTORY OV 200 large eyes, which make almost the w hole head, and which resemble glittering mother-of-pearl. It has also four ex- pansive silver-coloured wings, with which, as with oars, it can turn itself with prodigious velocity ; and to assist these, it is furnished with a very long body, which, like a rudder, directs its motions. As the wrings are long, and the legs short, they seldom walk, but are ever seen either resting or flying. For this reason, they always choose dry branches of trees or shrubs to remain on; and when they have re- freshed themselves a little, they renew their flight. Thus they are seen adorning the summer with a profusion of beauty, lightly traversing the air in a thousand directions, and expanding the most beautiful colours to the sun. The garden, the forest, the hedges, and the rivulets, are animated by their sports ; and there are few w ho have been brought up in the country, who have not employed a part of their childhood in the pursuit. But while these beautiful flies appear to us so idly and innocently employed, they are in fact the greatest tyrants •of the insect tribe; and, like the hawk among birds, are only hovering up and down to seize their prey. They are the strongest and the most courageous of all winged in- sects ; nor is there one, howr large soever, that they w ill not attack and devour. The blue-fly, the bee, the wasp, and the hornet, make their constant prey; and even the butterfly, that spreads so large a wing, is often caught and treated without mercy., Their appetite seems to know no bounds; they spend the whole day in the pur- suit, and have been seen to devour three times their own size in the capture of a single hour. They seize their prey flying with their six claws, and tear it easily to pieces with their teeth, which are capable of inflicting troublesome wounds. But the males are upon the wing for another purpose beside that of food, as they are very salacious, and seek the -females with great ardour. The sun no sooner begins to warm the fields, than the males are found assiduously employed each in seeking its mate ; and no sooner does a female appear, but tw o or three males are seen pursuing, and endeavouring to seize her with all their arts and agility. The instrument of generation in the male is placed very different from that of any other insect, being THE LION ANT. 201 not at the end of the tail, as in others, but immediately under the breast, and consequently, at first view, inca- pable of being united to the sexual part of the female ; which, as in other insects, lies in the tail. To perform this junction, Nature has provided the male with a very peculiar manner of proceeding. As soon as he perceives the female, and finds himself sufficiently near, he seizes upon the back of her head by surprise, and fastening his claws upon her, turns round his forky tail, which he fastens round her neck, and in this manner fixes himself so closely and firmly, that no efforts can remove him. It is in vain that she flies from one branch to another, and settles upon them, he still keeps fixed, and often continues in this situation for three or four hours successively. When he flies, she is obliged to fly with him ; but he still directs the way : and though she moves her wings, she seems entirely guided by his motion. As yet, however, the business of impregnation is not performed; for to this the female must contribute; and she at last seems, by the continuance of her constraint, to comply : for, turning up the end of her tail to that part of the breast of the male in which lies the part proper for generation, both instru- ments meet, and the eggs of the female receive the neces- sary fecundation. An hour or two after this, she flies to some neighbouring pool, where she deposits her eggs, as was already mentioned. There they continue in a reptile state for a year ; and then are changed into a beautiful fly, resembliug the parent. CHAP. III. OF THE FORMICA LEO, OR LION-ANT. ALTHOUGH this animal properly belongs to no or- der of insects, yet as it is changed into a fly very much resembling that described in the preceding chapter, it may not be improper to give its history here. If we consider the life of this animal, in its different stages of existence, we shall find it equally wonderful in all; but as it changes to a dragon-fly, what we have said of that animal above, need not be repeated here. The liou-ant, when it becomes a history of an inhabitant of air, in every respect resembles that which has been already described; its glossy wings, its voracious appetites, its peculiar manner of generation, are entirely the same. It is in its reptile state that it differs from all other insects; and in that state it will be amusing to pur- sue its history. The lion-ant, in its reptile state, is of the size of a com- mon woodlouse, but somewhat broader. It has a pretty long head, and a roundish body, which becomes a little narrower towards the tail. The colour is a dirty gray, speckled with black, and the body is composed of seve- ral flat rings, which slip one upon another. It has six feet, four of which are fixed to the breast, and two to the neck. The head is small and flat, and before there are two little smooth horns or feelers, which are hard, about a quarter of an inch long, and crooked at the ends. At the basis of the feelers there are two small black lively eyes, by which it can see the smallest object, as is easily discovered by its starting from every thing that approaches. To a form so unpromising, and so ill provided for the purposes of rapacity, this animal unites the most ravenous appetites in nature; but to mark its imbecility still stronger, as other animals have wings or feet to enable them to ad- vance towards their prey, the lion-ant is unprovided with such assistance from either. It has legs, indeed; but these only enable it to run backward, so that it could as soon die as make the smallest progressive motion. Thus famished and rapacious as it ever seems, its prey must come to it, or rather into the snare provided for it, or the insidious assassin must starve. But Nature, that has denied it strength or swiftness, has given it an equivalent in cunning, so that no animal fares more sumptuously, without ever stirring from its retreat. For this purpose, it chooses a dry sandy place at the foot of a wall, or under some shelter, in order to preserve its machinations from the rain. The driest and most sandy spot is the most proper for it ; because a heavy clogged earth would defeat its labour. When it goes about to dig the hole where it takes its prey, it begins to bend the hinder part of its body, which is pointed, and thus works backward ; making, after several attempts, a cir- cular furrow, which serves to mark out the size of the THE LIOX-AtfT. 203 hole it intends making, as the ancients marked out the limits of a city with a plough. Within this first furrow it digs a second, then a third, and afterwards others, which are always less than the preceding. Then it begins to deepen its hole, sinking lower and lower into the sand, which it throws with its horns or feelers towards the edges, as we see men throw up sand in a gravel-pit. Thus, by repeating its labours all round, the sand is thrown up in a circle about the edge of the pit, until the whole is quite completed. This hole is always formed in a per- fect circle; and the pit itself resembles the inside of an inverted funnel. When this insect first leaves the egg and is newly hatched, the first pit it makes is very small ; but as it grows bigger, it makes a larger hole ; which is des- tined, like a pit-fall, to entrap its prey. It is generally about two inches deep, and as much in diameter. The work being thus, with great labour, finished, the insidious insect places itself in ambush, hiding itself in the bottom under the sand, in such a manner, that its two horns encircle the bottom of the pit. All the sides of this pit-fall are made of the most loose and crumbling mate- rials ; so that scarcely any insect can climb up that has once got down to the bottom. Conscious of this, the lion-ant remains in patient expectation, ready to profit by that accident which throws some heedless little ani- mal into its den. If then, by misfortune, an ant, a wood- louse, or a small caterpillar, walks too near the edge of the precipice, the sand gives w ay beneath them, and they fall to the bottom of the pit, where they meet inevitable destruction. The fall of a single grain of sand gives the murderer notice at the bottom of its cave; and it never fails to sally forth to seize upon its prey. It happens sometimes, however, that the ant or the wood-louse is too nimble, and runs up the sides of the pit-fall before the other can make ready to seize it. The lion-ant has then another contrivance, still more wonderful than the former ; for, by means of its broad head and feelers, it has a method of throwing up a shower of sand, which falls upon the struggling captive with tremendous weight, and once more crushes it down to the bottom. When the insect is once fallen thus Iow% no efforts can retrieve or release it ; the lion-ant seizes it with its feelers, which 104 A HISTORY OF are hollow, and darting them both into its body, sucks out all the little animal’s juices with the utmost rapacity. When the prey is thus reduced to a husk, and nothing but the external form remains, the next care ot the mur- derer is to remove the body from its cell ; since the appear- ance of dead carcases might forewarn other insects of the danger of the place. The insect, therefore, takes up the wasted trunk with its feelers, and throws it, with won- derful strength, at least six inches from the edge of its hole ; and then patiently sets about mending the breaches which its fortifications had received in the last engage- ment. Nothing can abate its industry, its vigilance, its patience, or its rapacity. It will work for a week toge- ther to make its pit-fall ; it will continue upon the watch for more than a month, patiently expecting the approach of its prey; and if it comes in greater quantities than is needful, yet still the little voracious creature will quit the insect it has newly killed, and leave it half eaten, to kill and attack any other that happens to fall within the sphere of its malignity : though so voracious, it is sur- prisingly patient of hunger ; some of them having been kept in a box with sand, for six months and upwards, without feeding at all. When the lion-ant attains a certain age, in which it is to change into another form, it then leaves off its usual rapacious habits, but keeps on its industry. It no longer continues to make pits, but furrows up the sand all round in an irregular manner; testifying those work- ings and violent agitations which most insects exhibit previous to their transformation. These animals are produced in autumn, and generally live a year, and per- haps two, before they assume a winged form. Certain it is, that they are found at the end of winter of all sizes ; and it would seem that many of the smaller kinds had not yet attained sufficient maturity for transformation. Be this as it may, when the time of change approaches, if the insect finds its little cell convenient, it seeks no other ; if it is obliged to remove, after furrowing up the sand, it hides itself under it, horns and all.— ^ It there spins a thread, in the manner of the spider; which being made of a glutinous substance, and being humid from the moisture of its body, sticks to the little particles, of THE LION ANT. 205 sand among which it is spun ; and in proportion as it is thus excluded, the insect rolls up its web, sand and all, into a ball, of which itself is the centre. This ball is about half an inch in diameter; and within it the insect resides, in an apartment sufficiently spacious for all its motions. The outside is composed of sand and silk; the inside is lined with silk only, of a fine pearl-colour, ex-' tremely delicate, and perfectly beautiful. But though the work is so curious within, it exhibits nothing to ex- ternal appearance but a lump of sand ; and thus escapes the search of birds, that might other wise disturb the in- habitant within. The insect continues thus shut up for six weeks or two months ; and gradually parts with its eyes, its feelers, its feet, and its skin; all which are thrust into a corner of the inner apartment, like a rag. The insect then appears al- most in its winged state, except that there is a thin skin which wraps up the wings, and that appears to be nothing else but a liquor dried on their outside. Still, however, the little animal is too delicate and tender to venture from its retreat; but continues inclosed for some time longer: at length, when the members of this new insect have acquired the necessary consistence and vigour, it tears open its lodging, and breaks through its wall. For this purpose it has two teeth, like those of grasshoppers, with which it eats through, and enlarges the opening, till it gets out. Its body, which is turned like a screw, takes up no more than the space of a quarter of an inch ; but when it is unfolded, it becomes half an inch in length ; while its wings, that seemed to occupy the smallest space, in two minutes’ time unfold, and become longer than the body. In short, it becomes a large and beautifuifly, of the libei- lula kind, with a long slender body, of a brown colour; a small head, with large bright eyes, long slender legs, and four large transparent reticulated wings. The rest of its habits resemble that insect whose form it bears ; except, that instead of dropping its egg in the water, it deposits them in sand, where they are soon hatched into that rapacious insect so justly admired for its method of catching its prey. vol. iv. — 47. 2D 206 A HISTORY OP CHAP. IV. PF THE GRASSHOPPER, THE LOCUST, THE CICADA, THE CRICKET, AND THE MOLE-CRICKET. BELONGING to the second order of insects, we find a tribe of little animals, which, though differing in size and colour, strongly resemble each other in figure, appetites, nature, and transformation. But though they all appear of one family, yet man has been taught to hold them in different estimation ; for while some of this tribe amuse him with their chirpings, and banish solitude from the fields, others come in swarms, eat up every thing that is green, and in a single night convert the most delightful landscape into a dreary waste. However, if these ani- mals be separately considered, the devouring locust is not in the least more mischievous than the musical grass- hopper ; the only difference is, that one species comes for food in a swarm, the other feeds singly. That animal which is called the grasshopper with us, dif- fers greatly from the cicada of antiquity ; for as our insect is active enough in hopping through the long grass, from whence it has taken its name, the cicada had not this power, but either walked or flew. The little hissing note also of our grasshopper is very different from the song of the cicada, which was louder, and far more musical. The manner in which this note is produced by the two animals is very dif- ferent; for the cicada makes it by a kind of buckler, which the male has beneath its belly; the grasshopper by a trans- parent membrane that covers a hole at the base of its wings. There is still a greater variety in all these with regard to shape and colour. Some are green, some black, some livid, and some variegated ; but many of them do not shew all their colours till they fly. Some have long legs, some short, some with more joints, others with fewer. Some sing, others are mute : some are innocent, doing no da- mage to the husbandman; while others do such prodigious mischief, that they are looked upon in some countries as one of the terrible scourges of the incensed Divinity. Of this variegated tribe, the little grasshopper that breeds in such plenty in every meadow, and that continues its THE GRASSHOPPER KIND. 207 chirping through the summer, is best known to us; and by having its history, we shall be possessed of that of all the rest. This animal is of the colour of green leaves, except a line of brown which streaks the back, and two pale lines under the belly and behind the legs. It may be divided into the head, the corselet, and the belly. The head is ob- long, regarding the earth, and bearing some resemblance to that of a horse. Its mouth is covered by a kind of round buckler jutting over it, and armed with teeth of a brown colour, hooked at the points. Within the mouth is per- ceivable a large reddish tongue, and fixed to the lower jaw. The feelers or horns are very long, tapering off to a point; and the eyes are like two black specks, a little prominent. The corselet is elevated, narrow, armed above and below by two serrated spines. The back is armed with a strong buckler, to which the muscles of the legs are firmly bound, and round these muscles are seen the vessels by which the animal breathes, as white as snow. The last pair of legs are much longer and stronger than the first two pair, for- tified by thick muscles, and very well formed for leaping. It has four wings ; the anterior ones springing from the second pair of legs, the posterior from the third pair. The hinder wings are much finer and more expansive than the foremost, and are the principal instruments of its flight. The belly is considerably large, composed of eight rings, and terminated by a forky tail, covered with down, like the tail of a rat. When examined internally, besides the gullet, we discover a small stomach ; and behind that a very large one, wrinkled and furrowed within side : lower down there is still a third ; so that it is not without reason that all the animals of this order are said to chew the cud, as they so much resemble ruminant animals in their in- ternal conformation. A short time after the grasshopper assumes its wings, it fills the meadow with its note; which, like that among birds, is a call to courtship* The male only of this tribe is vocal ; and, upon examining at the base of the wings, there will be found a little hole in its body, covered with a fine transparent membrane. This is thought, by Linnaeus, to be the instrument it employs in singing: but others are of opinion the sound is produced by rubbing its hinder legs against each other: however this be, the note of one male A HISTORY OF 208 is seldom heard, but it is returned by another; and the two little animals, after many mutual insults of this kind, are seen to meet and fight desperately. The female is gene- rally the reward of victory; for, after the combat, the male seizes her with his teeth behind the neck, and thus keeps her for several hours till the business of fecundation is per- formed. They are at that time so strongly united, that they can scarcely be separated without tearing asunder. Towards the latter end of autumn the female prepares to deposit her burden ; and her body is then seen greatly dis- tended with her eggs, which she carries to the number of an hundred and fifty. In order to make a proper lodg- ment in the earth for them, Nature has furnished her with an instrument at her tail, somewhat resembling a two- edged sword, which she can sheathe and unsheathe at pleasure : with this she pierces the earth as deep as she is able; and into the hole which her instrument has made, she deposits her eggs, one after the other. Having thus provided for the continuation of her pos- terity, the animal herself does not long survive; but as the winter approaches, she dries up, seems to feel the effects of age, and dies from a total decay. Some, however, assert, that she is killed by the cold; and others, that she is eaten by w orms : but certain it is, that neither the male nor fe- male are ever seen to survive the winter. In the mean time, the eggs which have been deposited continue unal- tered, either by the severity of the season, or the retarda- tion of the spring. They are of an oval figure, white, and of the consistence of horn: their size nearly equals that of a grain of anise : they are enveloped in the body within a covering, branched all over with veins and arteries ; and when excluded they crack, on being pressed between the fingers; their substance within is a whitish, viscous, and transparent fluid. In this manner they remain deposited beneath the surface of the earth, during the w hole winter; till the genial return of spring begins to vivify and hatch them. The sun, with its warmth, beginning to animate all nature, the insect eggs feel its benign influence; and, generally, about the beginning of May, every egg produces an insect, about the size of a flea. These, at first, are of a whitish colour ; at the end of tw 6 or three days they turn black ; and soon after they become of a reddish brown. THE GRASSHOPPER KIND. 209 They appear, from the beginning, like grasshoppers, wanting wings ; and hop among the grass, as soon as ex- cluded, with great agility. Yet still they are by no means arrived at their state of full perfection; although they bear a strong resemblance to the animal in its perfect form. They want, or seem to want, the wings, w hich they are at last seen to assume; and can only hop among the grass, without being able to fly. The wings, however, are not wanting, but are concealed within four little bunches, that seem to deform the sides of the animal : there they lie rolled up in a most curious man- ner; and occupying a smaller space than one could con- ceive who saw them extended. Indeed, all insects, what- ever transmutations they seem to undergo, are yet brought forth with those very limbs, parts, and wings, which they ^afterw ards seem to acquire. In the most helpless caterpil- lar, there is still to be seen the rudiments of that beautiful plumage which it afterwards expands when a butterfly : and though many new parts seem unfolded to the view, the animal acquires none but such as it was from the be- ginning possessed of. The grasshopper, therefore, though seemingly without wings, is, in reality, from the first, pos- sessed of those instruments, and only waits for sufficient force to break the bonds that hold them folded up, and to give them their full expansion. The grasshopper, that for above twenty days from its exclusion has continued w ithout the use of its wings, w hich were folded up to its body, at length prepares for its eman- cipation, and for a life of greater liberty and pleasure. To make the proper dispositions for the approaching change, it ceases from its grassy food, and seeks about for a con- venient place, beneath some thorn or thistle, that may pro- tect it from an accidental shower. "Ihe same laborious writhings and w orkings, heavings and palpitations, which we have remarked in every other insect upon an approach- ing change, are exhibited in this. It swells up its head and neck; it then seems to draw them in again; and thus alternately, for some time, it exerts its powers to get free. At length, the skin covering the head and breast is seen dividing above the neck ; the head is seen issuing out fiist from the bursting skin ; the efforts still continuing, the other parts follow' successively ; so that the little animal* 210 A HISTORY OF with its long feelers, legs and all, works its way from the old skin, that remains fixed to the thistle or the thorn. It is, indeed, inconceiveable how the insect can thus extri- cate itself from so exact a sheath as that which covereth every part of its body. The grasshopper, thus disengaged from its outer skin, appears in its perfect form; but then so feeble, and its body so soft and tender, that it may be moulded like wax. It is no longer of that obscure colour which it exhibited be- fore, but of a greenish white, which becomes more vivid as the moisture on the surface is dried away. Still, how'- ever, the animal continues to shew no signs of life, but appears quite spent and fatigued with its labour for more than an hour together. During this time, the body is dry- ing, and the wings unfolding to their greatest expansion; and the curious observer will perceive them, fold after fold, opening to the sun, till at last they become longer than the two hinder legs. The insect’s body also is lengthened during this operation, and it becomes much more beautiful than before. These insects are generally vocal in the midst of summer, and they are heard at sun-setting much louder than during the heats of the day. They are fed upon grass ; and, if their belly be pressed, they will be seen to return the juices of the plants they have last fed upon. Though unwilling to fly, and slow in flight, particularly when the weather is moist or cool, they are sometimes seen to fly to consider- able distances. If they are caught by one of the hinder legs, they quickly disengage themselves from it, and leave the leg behind them. This, however, does not grow again, as with crabs or spiders; for as they are animals but of a single year’s continuance, they have not sufficient time for repairing those accidental misfortunes. The loss of their leg also prevents them from flying; for being unable to lift themselves in the air, they have not room upon the ground for the proper expansion of their wings. If they be handled roughly, they will bite very fiercely; and when they fly, they make a noise with their wings. I hey generally keep in the plain, where the grass is lux- uriant, and the ground rich and fertile : there they deposit their eggs, particularly in those cracks which are formed by the heat of the sun. THE GRASSHOPPER KIND. 211 Such are the habits and nature of those little vocal in- sects, that swarm in our meadows, and enliven the land- scape. The larger kinds only differ from them in size, in rapidity of flight, and the powers of injuring mankind, by swarming upon the productions of the earth. The quantity of grass which a few grasshoppers that sport in the fields can destroy is trifling; but when a swarm of locusts, two or three miles long, and several yards deep, settle upon a field, the consequences are frightful. The annals of every country are marked with the devastation which such a multitude of insects produces ; and though they seldom visit Europe in such dangerous swarms as formerly, yet, in some of the southern kingdoms, they are still formidable. Those which have at uncertain intervals visited Europe, in our memory, are supposed to have come from Africa, and the animal is called the Great Brown Locust. It was seen in several parts of England in the year 1748, and many dreadful consequences were apprehended from its appearance. This insect is about three inches long ; and has two horns or feelers, an inch in length. The head and horns are of a browish colour; it is blue about the mouth, as also on the inside of the larger legs. The shield that covers the back is greenish ; and the upper side of the body brown, spotted with black, and the under side purple. The upper wings are brown, with small dusky spots, with one larger at the tips; the under wings are more transparent, and of a light brown, tinctured with green, but there is a dark cloud of spots near the tips. This is that insect that has threatened us so often with its visitations; and that is so truly terrible in the countries where it is bred. There is no animal in the creation that multiplies so fast as these, if the sun be warm, and the soil in which their eggs are deposited be dry. Happily for us, the coldness of our climate, and the humidity of our soil, are no w ay favour- able to their production ; and as they are but the animals of a year, they visit us and perish. he Scripture, which was written in a country where the locust made a distinguished feature in the picture of nature, has given us several very striking images of this animal’s numbers and rapacity. It compares an army, where the numbers are almost infinite, to a swarm of locusts: it de- scribes them as rising out of the earth, where they are pro- 212 A HISTORY OF duced ; as pursuing a settled march to destroy the fruits of the earth, and co-operate with divine indignation. When the locusts take the field, as we are assured, they have a leader at their head, whose flight they observe, and pay a strict attention to all his motions. They appear, at a distance, like a black cloud, which, as it approaches, gathers upon the horizon, and almost hides the light of the day. It often happens that the husbandman sees this im- minent calamity pass away without doing him any mis- chief; and the whole swarm proceed onward, to settle upon the labours of some less fortunate country. But wretched is the district upon which they settle: they ra- vage the meadow and the pasture ground ; strip the trees of their leaves, and the garden of its beauty: the visitation of a few minutes destroys the expectations of a year; and a famine but too frequently ensues. In their native tropical climates they are not so dreadful as in the more southern parts of Europe. There, though the plain and the forest be stripped of their verdure, the power of vegetation is so great, that an interval of three or four days repairs the ca- lamity : but our verdure is the livery of a season ; and we must wait till the ensuing spring repairs the damage. Be- sides, in their long flights to this part of the world, they are famished by the tediousness of their journey, and are therefore more voracious wherever they happen to settle. But it is not by what they devour that they do so much damage, as by what they destroy. Their very bite is thought to contaminate the plant, and to prevent its vegetation. To use the expression of the husbandman, they burn what- ever they touch, and leave the marks of their devastation for two or three years ensuing. But if they be noxious while living, they are still more so when dead; for wher- ever they fall, they infect the air in such a manner, that the smell is insupportable. Orosius tells us, that in the year of the world 3800, there was an incredible number of locusts which infected Africa; and, after having eaten up every thing that was green, they flew off', and were drowned in the x\frican sea; where they caused such a stench, that the putrefying bodies of hundreds of thou- sands of men could not equal it. In the year 1690, a cloud of locusts was seen to enter Russia iu three different places ; and from thence to spread THE GRASSHOPPER KIND. 213 themselves over Poland and Lithuania, in such astonishing multitudes, that the air was darkened, and the earth co- vered with their numbers. In some places they were seen lying dead, heaped upon each other four feet deep ; in others, they covered the surface like a black cloth: the trees bent beneath their weight ; and the damage which the country sustained exceeded computation. In Barbary their numbers are formidable, and their visits are frequent. 