THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 173 



ernment, by which the excessive multiplication' of the species in that 

 region, and the consequent migration therefrom, may be prevented. It is 

 understood that the recommendation to the Government will be, that in 

 connection with the authorities in British America, efforts be made to 

 restrain the extensive prairie fires in autumn which are common to that 

 region, and subsequently to burn them in the spring after the hatching of 

 the young locusts. This plan is believed to be feasible, as the breeding- 

 grounds are not co-extensive with the so-called Permanent region, but are 

 limited to the richer valleys, plateaus and river borders within it. 



The Commission will also, it is understood, in its forthcoming Report, 

 recommend to the Government a scheme for a system of warning and 

 prevention, through the aid of the. mounted police patrol of the Dominion 

 Government, and our Signal Bureau and military posts. 



Having been favored with a transcript of the subjects to be treated 

 of in the forthcoming 2nd Report of the Commission, and the assignment 

 of subjects to the respective members of the Commission, I have no 

 hesitancy in giving assurance of a volume of unusual interest and value. 

 It is to be hoped that Congress will not repeat the inexcusable blunder 

 of ordering of it an edition by far too small to supply the demand, or for 

 the accomplishment of a main object in its laborious preparation — the 

 diffusion of the needed information among those to whom it could not fail 

 of proving beneficial. 



The Commission is also occupied with investigation of the Hessian-fly 

 and the Chinch-bug — each of which are chargeable with annual injuries to 

 the amount of several millions of dollars. 



The investigation of the natural history and habits of the Cotton- 

 worm, commenced by the Department of Agriculture last year, has by 

 direction of Congress, been transferred to the Entomological Commission. 

 Prof. Riley has been pursuing its study in Southern Texas and in the 

 Gulf States, aided by special assistants, and it is believed that discoveries 

 . have recently been made which will reduce the cost of destroying the 

 larvae to perhaps a fourth of what it has hitherto been. 



Among the special subjects of study which have claimed attention 

 lately, an interesting one has been the pupation of butterflies. Obser- 

 vations made during the past year on the pupation of some of our butter- 

 flies have shown us that we have been at fault in accepting the account 

 given of it by Reaumur over a century ago, and received and quoted by 



