so 



HAUDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



when ground and mixed ■with other food, they 

 would be very tasty. Our Mahomedan servants 

 ate them, and they told us how that in many parts 

 they were extensively used, being dried and kept in 

 sacks. All animals, such as cattle and camels, arc 

 said to like them ; and amongst birds, the only ones 

 that did not touch them, were the doves and para- 

 keets — both vegetable-feeders. 



On the 16th September there were three more 

 large nights, extending for miles ; but as very few 

 settled, little harm was done to the crops. The 

 appearance of a flight in the horizon is curious. It 

 is like a thin dark streak, which increases in 

 density every moment till it has arrived. It is 

 often several hundred feet in depth, a mile or two 

 miles, and some three or four miles, long. Any 

 computation of the number of insects of which 

 uch a swarm consists, would be quite impossible. 

 What strikes every one as they approach, is the 

 strange rustling of millions on millions of crisp 

 wings. Often after this there were flights, but it 

 was impossible to trace their direction, nor is it 

 certainly known where they generally breed. Many 

 swarms settled in the Punjab, where they laid their 

 eggs in the ground, and thousands of men, women, 

 and children collected these, and they were de- 

 stroyed. Still many remained, and the young wing- 

 less larvre crawled over the ground, creating far 

 greater havoc then their winged parents. Some 

 say that they come across the Himalayas. That 

 they do not always succeed, is quite clear from the 

 following. 



In June, 1864, there was published an account by 

 Mr. Shaw of the flight of locusts he had fouud 

 destroyed on a glacier, near the head of the Ravee 

 river in 1863. This extraordinary sight is thus 

 described by him : — " The whole surface of the 

 glacier, over an extent certainly equal to a square 

 mile, was covered with dead locusts. A thin 

 coating of snow, which had fallen a day or two 

 before, and had, probably, caused their death, had 

 melted in most places, and showed the locusts 

 spread an inch or two thick, and apparently pre- 

 served by the cold. In the crevasses, which were 

 very frequent and regular along the side of the 

 glacier, the locusts were heaped in such numbers 

 as to fill up the narrow fissures ten or twelve feet 

 deep. The brown bears had come up by dozens to 

 feast on this new delicacy, and our coolies, who had 

 gone ahead of us, reported that they had passed 

 several bears, one of which was feeding so eagerly 

 as scarcely to notice their neighbourhood. This 

 swarm of locusts consisted of the red kind that 

 visits the Kangra valley at the beginning and end 

 of the rains." I kept an account for some years of 

 all the flights, recorded by the different Indian 

 papers, with their directions, but I am sorry to say 

 I could not deduce any theory to account for their 

 sudden appearance, [nor have trans-Himalayan tra- 



' vellers confirmed the theory of their coming 

 thence. 



When they do come, every one turns out with 

 pots, kettles, and pans, and makes as much noise 

 as he can. This certaiuly prevents them settling 

 and I thus twice saved my garden, and trust never 

 to see them again. 



C. Horne, E.Z.S, late B.C.S. 



THE HOME OE THE SWALLOW-TAIL 

 {Papilio Machaon). 



FT is not every reader of Science-Gossip whose 

 ■*- lot is cast in a land tenanted by that beautiful, 

 and one of the largest of the British butterflies, the 

 Swallow-tail {Papilio Machaon) ; and a few words 

 relative to the haunts and habits of that conspicuous 

 species, may, perhaps, not prove uninteresting to 

 some of its numerous entomological readers. 



There are few counties in Britain that can now 

 boast of this beautiful butterfly as numbering among 

 their entomological productions, but where it is 

 indigenous it occurs often iu considerable abundance. 

 Many localities are recorded in entomological works, 

 but with most of them it is now " a thing of the past ;" 

 but there are still a few where it may be sought 

 after with a pretty fair prospect of success ; amongst 

 which may be enumerated Wicken Een, in Cam- 

 bridgeshire, Yaxley, and Whittlesea Mere; to which 

 I may also add, last but by no means least, Horn- 

 ing and Banworth Marshes, in Norfolk. In these 

 two places it is of annual abundance, and they are 

 the sole localities from whence I glean these few 

 notes. These places are well known and explored by 

 every Norfolk entomologist, being rich iu entomolo- 

 gical productions, not only Lepidoptera, but innumer- 

 able Coleoptera, and many of the Neuroptera. Rus- 

 tics entirely ignorant of entomology, residing here, 

 well know the Swallow-tail, for the name of this in- 

 sect has of late years become with them " familiar as 

 household words": both the larvfc and perfect in- 

 sect are yearly sought after by many of them, and 

 brought home in considerable abundance, fed up 

 and disposed of at a trifling cost to entomologists 

 on their visits. 



Many a bright summer morning, ere the dew is 

 off the grass, have we set out, leaving far behind 

 the busy hum and bustle of the city, laden with the 

 required paraphernalia, with intent to breathe the 

 fresh and bracing atmosphere of the country in pay- 

 ing a visit to the home of the Swallow-tail, feasting 

 both eyes and ears on the sights and sounds of the 

 insect world, as we wend our way, net in hand, 

 through grassy meads and country lanes. By-and- 

 by we arrive at the marshes, not at all pleasant 

 places to walk about, but forming a decided con- 

 trast with the dusty road we have just left behind. 

 We are now fairly on our hunting-ground, and as 



