258 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



brought in bv the villagers for the reward and some being destroyed locally by 

 driving them into trenches and fires. But little damage was done either to the old 

 rabi or to the young kkarif crops. The young locusts which escaped destruction 

 acquired wings and afterwards flew about the district, but they were not allowed to 

 settle on the crops, and did little damage. 



In the Hissar district (Deputy Commissioner's report) flights appeared in 

 February and March, and again in still vaster numbers in June and July. Eggs 

 began to be found about July, and ploughing was largely tried, but was generally 

 given up as useless. In the latter part of July young locusts emerged in vast 

 numbers : rewards were offered for eggs and young locusts, trenches were dug in 

 all directions, and vast numbers were destroyed. In the latter part of August 

 more flights appeared and eggs were again deposited, the measures taken for des- 

 troying the eggs having to be continued vigorously until the middle of October. 

 On the whole, however, very little damage was done in the district. 



In the Muzaffargarh district (Mr. W. Coldstream's notes) a large flight, from 

 the Rajputana desert, appeared in the early part of July and did some damage. 



The above is all that has been ascertained on the subject of the invasion of 

 individual districts in 1863, but the following extract from a report, dated 29th 

 July, 1863, by the Secretary to the Punjab Finance Commissioner, shows the 

 serious nature of the evil : — 



" The young locusts, I regret to say, have begun to be hatched at Lahore itself, 

 where there was previously no suspicion even of eggs having been laid, as also in 

 the Gurdaspur district, in vast numbers. The old locusts have been laying their 

 eggs at Sirsa, Hissar, Rohtak, Patiala, and other parts of the Sutlej, while they are 

 stated to be laying them broadcast in Bikanir and other parts of Rajputana. In 

 the Derajat and Peshawar divisions, as well as in Rawalpindi, and, it is to be 

 feared, throughout the Salt Range and elsewhere in the north, the same process 

 appears to be going on ; so it appears certain the coming crops must be devasta. 

 ted far and wide, more especially the cotton crops, which have already begun to 

 suffer, if the most resolute efforts be not made to destroy the eggs and young 

 broods before they attain to maturity."" 



From 1864; to 1868 inclusive, the only records of locusts likely to have belonged 

 to the species Acridium peregrinum are from the Hissar district (report of the 

 Deputy Commissioner), where a very careful record seems to have been kept. In 

 this district, in 1864, flights appeared in July and August and laid eggs which 

 hatched in the middle of August, very slight damage being occasioned : in 1865 

 flights appeared in June, July and August, and agaiu in November, young locusts 

 being found as early as the end of June ; in 1866 a few locusts appeared in June, 

 and young hatched out in August. In 1867 a small flight appeared in July. 



In 1869, after prolonged drought, the whole of Rajputana and the Punjab* were 



•Tlits steam ship Euphrates was said to have had to plough her way through 

 locusts for three days and nights in the Bed Sea towards the end of October iu 

 this year (Swinhoe), bu< there is do evidence to show to what extent the invasion was 

 a general one iu the intervening countries. 



