Among the lizards there is a little creature, known as the guiko, that frequents houses, and whose noise is very annoying. It is not a fair representative of the "cricket on the hearth." It has its value, however, being useful in destroying vermin. It clings with remarkable tenacity, even when dying, to the piece of timber on which it is placed, the soles of its feet seeming to be provided with suckers. There are few scenes in nature more beautiful than a bush or tree when lighted with the brilliant fireflies that illuminate the forests at night. They seem almost to have a system of fire-telegraphy, answering, as they do, each other by a sudden glow of a delicate green hue, which gleams in quick succession from point to point of the bush. The Locust Scourge. The great scourge of the Philippines is the locust. It will not touch the hemp plantations, but menaces and devastates almost everything else green or growing. In 1851 the Government imported some martins from China, for the extermination of the pest. They were received by a procession of soldiers, with a band of music, and the cages containing them were carried in state to Santa Mesa, where the birds were turned loose. The severest penalties were then prescribed for any person that should kill a martin. According to latest accounts, however, the locusts still flourish. The injury done by these pests to cultivated lands is always serious, often disastrous. Miles of ripened crops may be devoured in a single night. When the locust-army makes its descent by day, preparing to attack a planted field, the natives do their best to drive it away by dint of noise and glare, beating tin cans, rattling bamboo-choppers, waving scarlet flags. Others make a dense smoke, by setting fire to damp straw and other fuel. The insects are very sensitive to noise, and the firing of small mortars, which the natives use at feasts, is a very useful locust-dispeller. In general appearance the locust looks like a large grasshopper; of a light reddish-brown hue in the males, and a darker brown in the females. The eggs are laid in the ground, which is pierced to the depth of an inch by the auger-like ovipositor of the female. She continues this process of egg-laying every few days, if allowed to settle. Two or three weeks are necessary for the hatching. The grubs cannot be driven to flight, as their wings do not sprout for about ten days, and they set themselves diligently to work to eat their fill, making havoc in the growing crops. Though they cannot fly, they can jump, and the plan adopted to dispose of them is to form a barrier of sheet-iron at one side of the field, dig a pit before it, and set a number of men to beat up the small game around the other three sides of the field. In this way the young locusts may be driven in heaps into the pit, and there destroyed. I have seen instances where tons of these destructive pests were thus slain.