OF AMERICA. 213 



on grasshoppers, locusts, and their eggs and larva, of which it can 

 devour incredible numbers in a da3\ It Avas also observed in the 

 colony of the Cape of Good Hope, by that indeftitigable naturalist, Le 

 Vaillant. In the works of the great Aldrovandi, of Bologne, in Italy, 

 (1599,) they are called sea starlings. No doubt they are intended in 

 California to act as a check on the increase of grasshoppers and locusts. 

 The description which Alexander Wilson has left of the red winged 

 starling of the southern Atlantic States, (1810,) agrees precisely with 

 the habits of our blackbird proper, and its companion the dun-colored 

 thrush , as they combine together in immense flocks in the summer 

 and autumn months. 



Wilson estimates that two millions of the starling will consume, in 

 three weeks, the enormous amount of sixteen thousand two hundred 

 millions of the eggs and larva of grasshoppers and other kindred 

 insects. The combined ravages of such a hideous host of insect vermin, 

 as Wilson remarks, is enough to spread famine and desolation over a 

 wide extent of cultivated country. 



It will thus be seen that in the order of Providence the enormous 

 number of these birds found in California and the Rocky mountain 

 country is intended as a positive blessing, for all time to come, to the 

 people who may make it their home. When these regions become 

 filled up, in the course of two centuries, with a numerous population 

 of herdsmen, miners, and cultivators of grains and fruits, the value of 

 this bird will be keenly appreciated, and no doubt suitable laws will 

 be made for its protection. An old settler informs us that this bird 

 sometimes becomes a great ravagfer of the grain crops. In the valley 

 of the Pajaro they have appeared in some years in flocks of millions, 

 and have done great injury to the wheat and barley, when the grain 

 w\as ripening. " This also is an evil," but a much smaller one than 

 the grasshoppers. 



It is suggested that collections of locusts, grasshoppers, and their 

 congeners be made by intelligent observers and amateurs living in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country. The insects should be gathered from the 

 eggs to the grub and the perfect animal. A number of specimens, 

 male and female, should be procured, and this at different seasons of 

 the year. The specimens may be dropped into vials containing 

 alcohol, brandy, rum, whiskey, or any other spirit, without further 

 trouble, and corked up. These should be packed in a small box. 



The Smithsonian Institution is making a special study of entomo- 

 logy, and all contributions of the kind transmitted to it at Washing- 

 ton from any part of this country will meet with attention and ac- 

 knowledgment. It is not out of the way to assert that the generosity 

 of the donors will redound greatly to their credit, to the cause of liberal 

 science, and to a more perfect knowledge of this most celebrated of all 

 insects. 



Such a collection being concentrated at one point will wonderfully 

 facilitate exact analysis, and cause to be distributed throughout the 

 world copies of faithful engravings of the different species of the 

 locusta, which can nowhere now be found in the annals of science. 



