MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 417 



The magic lantern slide, illustrative of what may perhaps be a locust disease, 

 comprised drawings made under a microscope magnifying 230 diameters, of 

 blood taken respectively from healthy and dead locusts which have been lately 

 reared in the Indian Museum. These locusts, after hatching out from the eggs 

 and living for some time in apparent health, began to sicken and die off in the 

 most unaccountable manner, and the microscope shows that the blood of those 

 that have died is simply swarming with minute corpuscles which are not 

 present in similar blood taken from healthy individuals. The corpuscles have 

 much resemblance to the ones that characterise the disease, known as pebrine, 

 which is often excessively destructive to silkworms. But further investigation 

 will be necessary to ascertain whether the corpuscles, found in the locust's 

 blood, characterise a contagious disease, or whether the locusts have been 

 dying from some other cause, in which case the corpuscles might perhaps be 

 accounted for by post mortem changes that have occurred in the blood. 



Upon the whole, it may be concluded that the appearance, both of parasitic 

 insects and also of what seems likely to prove to be specific disease amongst 

 the locusts, is a hopeful sign for next year, as it points to an approaching end 

 of the locust plague. But at the same time it must not be forgotten that the 

 rainy weather breeding season is now coming on, when every effort ought to 

 be made to destroy the young locusts which may shortly be expected to appear 

 in Eajputana, in the Punjab, and, possibly, also in some parts of the Western 

 Districts of the N.-W. Provinces, for the number of winged locusts now flying 

 about the North-West is so vast that if anything should go wrong with their 

 natural enemies and diseases, terrible damage would certainly result to the 

 crops, unless the most energetic measures are taken by the people to destroy 

 what they can for themselves. It has been abundantly shown by what was 

 done last year in some of the districts of the Punjab, that when the locusts 

 are in their early wingless condition, they can be effectively stamped out, 

 wherever they appear, provided well organized and sustained warfare is waged 

 against them by the cultivators . 



II.— TAMING A HERON. 



One day during the recent monsoon a young Egret or Heron* with a 

 greenish-brown neck and body, white tipped wings, and green legs, flew into the 

 verandah of my house, apparently in search of food. I caught it and for about 

 ten days kept it under a large basket, feeding it with raw meat. I then gave 

 it its liberty, but it refused to leave. It grew very tame and would feed out 

 of my hand. Occasionally it would indulge in a bath in one of the dog's tins, 

 and afterwards sit on a chair in the verandah. In the evening it flew away 

 to roost in one of the large neem trees in the compound. It showed no fear 

 of any of my dogs, and would give any of them who came too near a vigorous 



* Butorides javanica (The Little Green Heron). 



