footsteps as he advances, they stop short in the midst of their song, and retire backward nimbly into their burrows, where they lurk till all suspicion of danger is over. At first an attempt was made to dig them out with a spade, but without any great success, for either the bottom of the hole was inaccessible from its terminating under a large stone, or else in breaking up the ground the poor creature was inadvertently squeezed to death. Out of one thus bruised a great number of eggs were taken, which were long and narrow, of a yellow colour, and covered with a very tough skin. More gentle means were then used, and these proved successful. A pliant stalk of grass, gently insinuated into the caverns, will probe their windings to the bottom and bring out the inhabitant; and thus the humane enquirer may gratify his curiosity without injuring the object of it.

It is remarkable that though these insects are furnished with long legs behind, and brawny thighs adapted for leaping, yet when driven from their holes they shew no activity, but crawl along in so lifeless a manner as easily to be taken. And though they are provided with a curious apparatus of wings, yet they never exert them, even when there seems to be the greatest occasion. The males only make their shrill noise, perhaps, out of rivalry and emulation, as is the case with many animals, which exert some sprightly note during their breeding-time.

When the males meet they sometimes fight very fiercely, as Mr. White found by some that he put into the crevices of a dry stone-wall, where he wished

to have them settle. For though they seemed distressed by being taken out of their knowledge, yet the first that got possession of the chinks, seized on all that were obtruded upon them, with a vast row of serrated fangs. With their strong jaws, toothed like the shears of a lobster's claws, they perforate and round their curious regular cells, having no fore claws to dig with, like the mole cricket. When taken in the hand they never attempt to defend themselves, though armed with such formidable weapons. Of such herbs as grow about the mouths of their burrows they eat indiscriminately, and never in the day-time seem to stir more than two or three inches from home. Sitting in the entrance of their caverns they chirp all night as well as day, from the middle of the month of May to the middle of July. In hot weather, when they are most vigorous, they make the hills echo; and in the more still hours of darkness, may be heard to a very considerable distance.

"Not many summers ago (says Mr. White), I endeavoured to transplant a colony of these insects to the terrace in my garden, by boring deep holes in the sloping turf. The new inhabitants staid some time and fed and sang; but they wandered away by degrees, and were heard at a greater heard at a greater distance every morning; so that it appears that on this emergency they made use of their wings in attempting to return to the spot from which they were taken.

"One of these crickets, when confined in a paper cage, set in the sun, and supplied with plants moistened with water, will feed and thrive; and

become so merry and loud as to render it irksome to be in the same room with it. If the plants are not wetted it will die *.

THE MIGRATORY LOCUST †.

Syria, Egypt, Persia, and almost all the south of Asia, are subject to a calamity as dreadful as volcanos and earthquakes are to other countries, in being ravaged by those clouds of locusts, so often mentioned by travellers. The quantity of these insects is incredible to all who have not themselves witnessed their astonishing numbers; the whole earth is covered with them for the space of several leagues. The noise they make in browzing on the trees and herbage, may be heard at a great distance, and resembles that of an army foraging in secret. The Tartars themselves are a less destructive enemy than these animals. One would imagine, wherever they have appeared, that fire had followed their progress. Wherever their myriads spread, the verdure of the country disappears, as if a curtain had been removed; trees and plants, stripped of their leaves, and reduced to their naked boughs and stems, cause the dreary image of winter to succeed in an instant, to the rich scenery of the spring.When these clouds of locusts take their flight, to surmount any obstacle, or to traverse more rapidly a desert soil, the heavens may literally be said to be obscured with them. Happily this calamity is not frequently repeated, for it is the inevitable forerun

* Natural History of Selborne.

Gryllus migratorius. Linn.

ner of famine, and all the maladies it occasions. The inhabitants of Syria have remarked that locusts are always increased by too mild winters, and that they constantly come from the desert of Arabia. From this observation it is easy to conceive that the cold, not having been rigorous enough to destroy their eggs, they multiply suddenly, and the herbage failing them in the immense plains of the desert, innumerable legions issue forth. When they make their first appearance on the frontiers of the cultivated country, the inhabitants strive to drive them off, by raising large clouds of smoke, but frequently their herbs and wet straw fail them. They then dig trenches, where numbers of the insects are buried; but their most efficacious destroyers are the south, and south-easterly winds, and the Locust-eating thrushes *. These birds follow them in numerous flocks, like starlings, and not only greedily devour them, but kill as many as they can; accordingly they are much respected the peasants, and nobody

is ever allowed to shoot them. As for the southerly, and south-easterly winds, they drive with violence these clouds of locusts over the Mediterranean, where such quantities of them are sometimes drowned, that, when their carcases are thrown on the shore, they infect the air for several days, even to a great distance.

The annals of most of the warm climates are filled with accounts of the devastations produced by the locusts. They seldom visit Europe in such swarms

* Turdus gryllivorus of Barrow.

as formerly; yet in the warmer parts of it they are still formidable. Those that have at uncertain intervals visited Europe, in our memory, are supposed to have come from Africa.

These insects are bred in the warm parts of Asia and Africa. They multiply faster than any other animals in the creation, and are truly terrible in the countries where they breed. Some of them have at different times been seen in Britain, and great mischiefs have been apprehended: but, happily for us, the coldness of our climate and the humidity of our soil are very unfavourable to their production; so that, as they are only animals of a year's continuance, they all perish without leaving a young gene

ration to succeed them.

Locusts, when they take the field, are said to have a leader, whose flight they observe, and to whose motions they pay a strict regard. At a distance they seem like a dark cloud, which, as it approaches, almost excludes the light of day. It often happens that the husbandınan sees them pass over without doing him any injury; but in this case they only proceed to settle on some less fortunate country. Wherever they alight they make dreadful havoc among the vegetation, destroying even the leaves of the trees. In the tropical climates their presence is not attended with such destructive consequences as in the southern parts of Europe, for in those the vegetative power is so strong and active, that an interval of only a few days repairs all the damage; but in Europe their ravages cannot be obliterated till the

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