214 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. 



north (of brood first) fly south to renr the brood second. I 

 believe with yourself that their natural habitation is the plains 

 east of the mountains, and think that their occasional invasion 

 of the States is due to the prevailing winds." After giving 

 several instances from Nebraska bearing on his theory, Mr. 

 Dodge, referring to my Notes on the Locust Invasion of 1874, 

 says: " In your items from various localities, I find a point that 

 bears directly upon the double brooded character of the insect, 

 but which may have escaped your notice. In the notes from 

 Fort Ellice, Headingly, Rockwood, Scratching River, Winnipeg, 

 Stone Fort, and St. Anne's, eggs are said to have hatched in 

 autumn ; and in each case grasshoppers are reported as coming 

 from the south early in the season. These were of course of 

 brood first; brood second coming always from a[ northerly direc- 

 tion would deposit eggs for the next spring's brood, and none of 

 them would hatch in autumn." 



I do not think Mr. Dodge's theory can be accepted in its en- 

 tirety, though the locust may occasionally complete two genera- 

 tions in one season, when the circumstances would no doubt be 

 as above supposed. Certain it is, however, that southern swarms 

 seldom if ever reach the country north of the 49th parallel in 

 time to allow a second brood to reach maturity, even if the eggs 

 hatch in summer or autumn. The date of arrival of the first 

 swarms in Manitoba in 1874 was considered exceptionally early, 

 and yet it is believed that all their progeny hatching during the 

 autumn were destroyed by frost. 



The Hon. D. Gunn has favoured me with the following histor- 

 ical notes on the grasshopper, going back to the earliest settle- 

 ment of the Red River country : 



" The fi^t appearance of the locusts in this land, of which we 

 have any account, took place on the 18th of July, 1818, six 

 years after the commencement of the colony. At that period of 

 the season the wheat was well advanced towards maturity, and 

 eufiiciently strong to resist the voracious destroyers. But it 

 fared otherwise with the barley. The locusts attacked the 

 plants a few inches below the ear, and cut them off as neatly aa 

 if cut off by the hand of man with a pair of shears. However 

 on this occasion nothing was lost ; every ear that fell to the 

 ground was carefully gathered up. The potatoes were injured 

 to some extent, but all garden vegetables were devoured. Their 

 eggs deposited, incited by instinct or pressed by hunger, they 



