ing every thing that comes in their way. It-is not fur-
prifing, that they ihould be fond of the moil juicy plants
and fruits,, fuch ás melons, and all manner o f garden
fruits,, and herbs, feeding ialf© upon aromatic plants',
fuch. as lavender, thyine, rofemary, ike. which are fo common
in Spain, that they ’ferve to heat ovens ; but it
is very lingular,, that they equally eat muflard feed-,
onions, and garlic e nay, even, upon hemlock, and the moft
rank and poifonous plants, fuch as the thorn apple (a)
and deadly night íhade^á). They will even prey upon
crowfoot, whofe caufticity burns the-very hides of beafts;,
and fuch. is their univerfaf itaile, that they do not prefer
the innocent mallow-to. the bitter furze, or fue to-
wormwood, confirming all alike,, without prediledion or
favour, with this remarkable circumftance; that during
the four years they committed, fuch. havock in Eilrema-
dura, the love apple-, or lypoperficbn folanum of Linnaeus',,
was the only plant that efcaped their rapacious tooth«,
and claimed a refped to its root, leaves,, flowers and
fruit. - Naturaliils may fearch for, their motives, which I
am at a lofs t©. difcover, the more,, as I faw millions of
them light, on a field near Almadén, and devour the wool-
(a) Thorn apple. Datura ferbx of tinnasus.-
(b) Dea'dly night-ihade, Or DwaleV Atropa Belládónna. L’inn.— Solánum Eethale. Parki
346. Gerard, 340» 'The; whole] plant is poifonous, and children allured by the-, beautiful
appearance of the berries, have too-often experienced their fatal effefts See. a, curious
account of this plant in Dr. Withering» Botanical Arrangement* &x. vol. lipag. 126.
len
len and linen garments o f the peafants, which were lying
to dry on the ground. The curate o f the village, a
man of veracity, at whofe houfe I was, affured me, that a
tremendous body o f them entered the church, and devoured
the filk garments that adorned the images o f faints,
not fparing even the varnifh on the altar-s. The better
to difcover the nature of fuch a phenomenon, I examined
the flomach o f the locuft (a), but only found one thin
and foft membrane, with which and the liquor it contains,
it deftroys and diffolves all kinds o f fubftances,
equally with the moil cauflic and venomous plants, ex-
trading from them, a fufficient and falutary nouriih-
ment.
Out o f curiofity, to know the nature of fo formidable
a creature, I was urged to examine all its parts with the
utmofl exadnefs ; Its head is of the fize o f a pea, though
longer, its forehead pointing downwards, like a hand-
fome .Andalufian horfe, its mouth large and open, its
eyes black and rolling, added to a timid afped not unlike a
hare. With fuch a daitard countenance, who would
imagine this creature to be the fcourge of mankind !
In its two jaws, it has four incifive teeth, whofe iharp
points traverfe each other like fciffars, their mechanifm
being fuch as to gripe or to cut. Thus armed, what can
(«) Swammerdam tells us, the locuft is o f the ruminant kind, thinking to have difcqvered
in them a triplicate flomach, like thofe an im a lsb u t he may'have been deceived, and feea
one thirrg for another,- or examined locirfls 'different iram thefe o f Spain..
L 1 refill