ORDER III. ORTHOPTERA. (continued 2)

Capt. Drayson, in his South African Sporting, tells the following anecdote: A South African, riding through a flock of Locusts, was struck in the eye by one of them, and, though blinded momentarily in the injured eye, he still kept the other on the insect, which sought to escape by diving among the crowd on the ground. So, dismounting, he captured it, passed a large pin through its body, and thrust it in his waistcoat pocket; and whenever the damaged eye smarted, he pulled it out again, and stuck the pin through it in a fresh place.438

Darwin tells us that when the “Beagle” was to windward of the Cape de Verd Islands, and when the nearest point of land, not directly opposed to the trade-wind, was Cape Blanco on the coast of Africa, 370 miles distant, a large Grasshopper—Acrydium—flew on board!439 But Sir Hans Sloane mentions a much more remarkable flight in his History of Jamaica; for when the Assistance frigate was about 440

Several species of Locusts are beautifully marked; these were sought after by young Jewish children as playthings.441

The eggs of the Chargol Locust, Truxalis nasuta?, the Jewish women used to carry in their ears to preserve them from the earache.442

The word Locust, Latin Locusta, is derived by the old etymologists from locus, a place, and ustus, burned,—“quod tactu multa urit morsu vero omnia erodat.” True Locusts are the Acridium, or Criquets, of Geoffroy, and the Gryllus of Fabricius. The Migratory-locust, Locusta migratoria, a rather small insect, is the most celebrated species of the family. To it almost all the devastations before mentioned have been attributed. It is most probable, however, many species have been confounded under the same name.

In Spain, as we are told by Osbeck, the people of fashion keep a species of Locust—called there Gryllo—in cages—grillaria,—for the sake of its song.443 De Pauw says that, like Canary birds, they were kept in cages to sing during the celebration of mass.444

The song of a Spanish Gryllo on one occasion, if we may credit the historian, was the means of saving a vessel from shipwreck. The incident evinces the perilous situation of Cabeza de Vara, in his voyage toward Brazil, and is related by Dr. Southey in his history of that country as follows:

“When they had crossed the Line, the state of the water was inquired into, and it was found, that of a hundred casks there remained but three, to supply four hundred men and thirty horses. Upon this, the Adelantado gave orders to make for the nearest land. Three days they stood toward it. A soldier, who had set out in ill health, had brought a Gryllo, or ground cricket, with him from Cadiz, thinking to be amused by the insect’s voice; but it had been silent the whole way, to his no little disappointment. Now, on the fourth morning, the Gryllo began to sing its shrill rattle, scenting, as it was immediately supposed, the land. Such 445

To account for the singular sound produced by the Platyphyllon concavum, which much resembles the expression Katy did, so much so that the insect is now called the Katy-did,—a curious legend is told in this country, and particularly in Virginia and Maryland. Mrs. A. L. Ruter Dufour has kindly embodied it in the following verses for me:

If a Katy-did enters your house, an unlooked-for visitor will speedily come. If it sings there, some of your family will be noted for fine musical powers. These superstitions obtain in Maryland.