some quite small, others two feet or more in length. They are quite
harmless, and appear to be in general very tame. Land tortoises are also
common in the sandy regions. In Kurdistan there is a remarkable frog,
with a smooth skin and of an apple-green color, which lives chiefly in
trees, roosting in them at night, and during the day employing itself in
catching flies and locusts, which it strikes with its fore paw, as a cat
strikes a bird or a mouse.

Among insects, travellers chiefly notice the mosquito, which is in many
places a cruel torment; the centipede, which grows to an unusual size;
the locust, of which there is more than one variety; and the scorpion,
whose sting is sometimes fatal.

The destructive locust (the _Acridium peregrinum_, probably) comes
suddenly into Kurdistan and southern Media in clouds that obscure the
air, moving with a slow and steady flight and with a sound like that
of heavy rain, and settling in myriads on the fields, the gardens, the
trees, the terraces of the houses, and even the streets, which they
sometimes cover completely. Where they fall, vegetation presently
disappears; the leaves, and even the stems of the plants, are devoured;
the labors of the husbandman through many a weary month perish in a day;
and the curse of famine is brought upon the land which but now enjoyed
the prospect of an abundant harvest. It is true that the devourers are
themselves devoured to some extent by the poorer sort of people; but the
compensation is slight and temporary; in a few days, when all verdure is
gone, either the swarms move to fresh pastures, or they perish and cover
the fields with their dead bodies, while the desolation which they have
created continues. [PLATE III., Fig. 2.]

[Illustration: PLATE III.]