In three or four weeks they attain their full size. In the fifth week their wings are formed, and they begin to fly. From this time on, they cruise about the country in huge swarms, till about the middle of September, when, after an existence of four months, they all perish, but not before due provision has been made for their multiplication in the ensuing year. The largest swarms appear in the steppe about the middle of August, when they are supposed to be joined by considerable reinforcements from the south. Their flight is clumsy, and always accompanied by a rustling noise, which, when a swarm of them flies along, is as loud as that made by a strong wind blowing through a grove of trees. They cannot fly against the wind, but, as has already been observed, they know how to work their way to windward, in true nautical fashion. The height to which they rise depends much upon the state of the weather. On a fine day, they will raise themselves nearly two hundred feet above the ground — that is to say, the cloud will be seen at that height, but the upper strata of these little destructives must of course be much higher. In gloomy weather they fly so near the ground, that a man w^alldng through a swarm will often be unable to endure the blows inflicted by them as they fly up against his face, but will be obliged to crouch together and turn his back to the current till it has passed away. When flying at a great height, if they discover a fresh piece of pasture-ground, they sink slowly down till they are about six or seven feet from the sm-face, when they drop like a shower of stones. As soon as it rains they always drop to the ground. They are rakish in their hours, for they often fly about merrily till near midnight, and seldom leave their roosting-places till eight or nine in the morning. A cloud of locusts is mostly of an oval form, a quarter of a verst broad, and from two to three versts long. Sometimes a cloud will be seen to separate into two or three parties, that afterwards unite again. What the thickness of such a cloud may bo it is difficult to say, but it must be considerable for not a ray of sunshine can pierce the mass, and the shadow cast on the ground is so dense, that, on a hot summer's day, it diffuses an agreeable coolness around. The sudden darkness occasioned by the appearance of a swarm of locusts on a fine day, is quite as great as that which would be caused by a succession of IJlack rainy clouds. In calm weather a cloud of locusts will fly about fomteen English miles in eight hours.
The ground honoured by the visit of one of these swarms, always assumes the appearance of a field of battle. In their eagerness to feed, they often bite each other ; and when faUing down, many break their wings, and are unable to rise again with the rest of the swarm. It is difficult to estimate the numbers of one of these winged armies. The people of the country maintain that, when a large cloud of locusts falls, it will cover a piece of ground of nearly four versts long and one verst broad, and in many places the creatures will lie three and four deep, and scarcely an inch will remain uncovered. If there happen to be a tree near the place, it will seem ready to break under the sudden load. Now, allowing for each insect a surface of two inches by one, and making no account of the patches where they lie three or four deep, it would follow that a small swarm, covering only one square verst, must consist of not much less than a thousand millions of locusts ! And every one of them, as the Russians say, has the bite of a horse, the greediness of a wolf, and a power and rapidity of digestion unequalled by any other animal on the face of the globe !