, that
they are purchased by some, and kept in a kind of cage, for the sake of
their music. Field crickets inhabit the meadows, and subsist on roots,
&c. as does another species, called the mole cricket.

LOCUST.

[Illustration]

There are different kinds of the locust; those we are acquainted with,
in this country, are represented in the above cut. In some seasons, they
are scarcely heard at all; in others, they are more numerous. About the
middle or latter part of summer, we hear them among the leaves of the
trees: their notes, which are continued about the space of one minute,
are loud at the beginning, and grow lower and lower, till they cease;
when they immediately fly to another tree, begin again, and end in the
same way, and so on.

In the eastern countries, a kind or kinds of locust, at different
periods, have been very numerous, and have done abundance of damage. In
the year 1650, a cloud of locusts entered Russia, in three different
places; and from thence spread over Poland and Lithuania; the air was
darkened, and the earth covered, in some places, to the depth of four
feet; the trees bent with heir weight, and the damage sustained exceeded
computation. Locusts were among the plagues of Egypt: sec Exodus, x. 15.

FLEA.

[Illustration]

This very troublesome little animal multiplies very fast among old rags,
dirt, straw, and litter, where hogs, cats, or dogs sleep; and in the
hair and bristles of those creatures: therefore, as a means of avoiding
such unwelcome neighbours, in the springs the cleanly farmer scrapes up
the rubbish about his woodpile, and around his house and barn, and
removes it into his field, where it also repays him by manuring his
lands. They abound in warm countries, particularly in the southern parts
of France and Italy.

When examined by a microscope, the flea is a pleasant object. The body
is curiously adorned with a suit of polished armour, neatly jointed, and
beset with a great number of sharp pins almost like the quills of a
porcupine: it has a small head, large eyes, two horns, or feelers, which
proceed from the head, and four long legs from the breast; they are very
hairy and long, and have several joints, which fold as it were one
within another.

LOUSE.

[Illustration]

These loathsome animals, however unwelcome, attend in troops, and add to
the afflictions of the unfortunate and lazy; but they are routed by the
hand of industry and cleanlin