1910] The Ottawa Naturalist. 165 



With regard to grasshoppers, it is strange that their regular 

 periodic movements have been largely overlooked, though no 

 doubt this is partly due to a lack of knowledge as to where to 

 look. At Aweme, Man., where locusts have been troublesome 

 of recent years, one instinctively looks up towards the sun, 

 taking care to get behind some building, or in some way hide 

 the sun's disc and then, if there are any flying, they will be 

 easily observed within a radius of from one to fifteen diameters 

 from the sun. 



When a locust has the instinctive incentive to fly it is said 

 to inflate the air sacks along the side of its body; it then rises 

 with a spiral movement, round and round, higher and higher, 

 until reaching a height of some hundred feet or more and feeling 

 the resistance of the wind, it sails slowly away, usually flying 

 with its head facing the breeze if it is at all strong, and gradually 

 getting higher as it moves along with it, until it becomes a mere 

 speck of glistening whiteness, when close in line with the sun 

 and invisable elsewhere. When there is no breeze it will return 

 obliquely to earth to await a more favourable opportunity. 



That this desire, or instinct, to fly elsewhere is no sudden 

 impulse is shown by the fact that a locust when disturbed seldom 

 flies any great distance, and in fact seems incapable of doing so, 

 while those that are prepared rise easily. Nor is the movement 

 due to lack of food, as one often sees them rise in the midst of 

 plenty. No, it is Qame Nature's way of spreading her children 

 over the country, and she has taught them, through the law of 

 natural selection, to go and also how to prepare for their journey. 



The migratory season commences soon after locusts reach 

 maturity, that is when they have passed their final moult, and 

 some three or four weeks before they commence laying eggs. 

 It lasts almost a month. There is not, however, a continual 

 movement, only hot sunny days are chosen and even then the 

 locust is dependent on the wind which not only carries it along 

 but also indicates its direction. The days most preferred are 

 those when the breeze averages some fifteen miles an hour, 

 though lesser winds, as well as higher, are used to advantage;, 

 locusts seldom fly, however, when the wind is blowing hard. 



It is interesting to watch these movements on a gusty day, 

 when calm one moment and breezy the next. Then every fresh 

 gust is taken advantage of and one sees hundreds of locusts rise 

 on such occasions, as if having waited their opportunitv. It is 

 the same while looking up towards the sun, one moment will 

 only discover a few, the next a perfect swarm moving at different 

 angles owing to the breeze having slightly different directions at 



