Note 004 There are very few conjectures so happy as that of Le Clerc (Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. i. p.148), who supposes that the harpies were only locusts. The Syriac or Phoenician name of those insects, their noisy flight, the stench and devastation which they occasion, and the north wind which drives them into the sea, all contribute to form the striking resemblance.

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Note to Chapter 17 of Decline and Fall by Gibbon