212 GRASSHOPPERS AND LOCUSTS 



ties ; tliey are destroyed by winter ploughing — deep, subsoil plough- 

 ing." 



The same paper adds: " We have made many inquiries, and from 

 those who have seen and examined their habits we gather the follow- 

 ing: The grasshopper's shell, or his decayed body, is found about ten 

 or twelve inches below the surface, in the sandy soil in gardens and 

 orchards. Those who plough early and deep find them turned up in 

 large quantities, and also note that where the soil is ploughed deep 

 and early they do not make such ravages. 



"We learn that irrigation at night and showering the trees and vines 

 have, in many instances, driven them away. Heavy shade and awnings 

 serve as means of protection. Grounds that are low and damp, and 

 such as by constant cultivation give forth a dew at night, tliis insect 

 avoids. Shade and moisture they shun; a hot and dry location 

 they select, and the hotter the day, the more terrible their ravages. 

 The hottest days they move with more rapidity." 



There is a bird in India termed the grakle, which is a great consu- 

 mer of the locusta and its eggs. This grakle, we judge, is similar to 

 our California chenate, or blackbird, which all know is found in the 

 valleys of the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and the coast, as also the 

 Eocky mountain countries, in such immense flocks as often to obscure 

 the sun ; they are incredibly abundant at some seasons in the lower 

 part of the Sacramento valley. The inhabitants of India have often 

 killed the grakle to almost extermination, from their injury to young 

 crops ; but when this has been effected a great multiplication occurs 

 of destructive insects, and particularly of the locusta, as the following, 

 from BufPon, will show : " Some of the eggs of the locusta being acci- 

 dentally introduced from Madagascar into the French island of Bour- 

 bon, they multiplied so prodigiously as to threaten devastation to the 

 country. But the governor, a man of superior intelligence, learning 

 the great services of the grakle in India, had a number of pairs intro- 

 duced and distributed over the islands under his charge, which in- 

 cluded Mauritius, &c. They bred very fast, and in a few years the 

 locusts seemed exterminated. The grakles then began to dig and 

 examine the newly sown fields ; on which the colonists, concluding 

 that they were devouring the seed, when they were in reality seeking 

 the locust's eggs, took the alarm and got them exterminated by gov- 

 ernment. In a few years they j)erceived their error, for the locusts 

 soon commenced their ravages again. Upon this the government 

 procured a new supply of grakles, which were given in charge this 

 time to their ofiicers ; the physicians being instructed to declare their 

 meat unwholesome food. This extraordinary care, hoAvever, proved 

 injurious, as after the birds had cleared the islands of the locusts and 

 their eggs, which infested the coffee plants, the birds began to injure 

 the grain crops and orchards, and even to kill young pigeons and 

 other domestic birds ; on which means Avere taken by the government 

 to keep down their numbers by a measured destruction." 



It appears that a species of blackbird, similar to the one of Califor- 

 nia, is found in immense numbers in Southern Russia, in Poland, the 

 Holy Land, Arabia, Lower Egypt, and the shores of the Mediterranean 

 sea. It is called the rose colored blackbird, {Pastor roseus,) and feeds 



