PREFATORY NOTE. 
It once became my duty to identify some specimens of Grass- 
hoppers, Locusts, and Crickets captured in Wellesley and vicinity. 
The difficulties with which I met as a novice in so doing, and in 
later study of the group, together with the lack of correct and 
definite recorded information relating to the seasons, haunts, 
habits, and distinguishing characters of these insects, led me to 
collect them extensively in the hope of finding out for myself how 
many kinds inhabited New England, and of being able to sim- 
plify for others the task of identifying them. After the lapse of 
many years and numerous interruptions this Manual is the out- 
come. If it serves its purpose as an aid, stimulates interest, and 
satisfies a natural desire for information concerning a conspicuous 
type of the insect life about us, I shall feel repaid. There still 
remains to be secured a large amount of data bearing on the exact 
distribution, seasons, and particular habits of the less common 
species. 
Since an , appeal to the eye speaks louder than words, and 
memory pictures of its characteristic environment make an essen- 
tial part of a first-hand knowledge of the life of each organism, I 
have added several photographs of different types of habitat in 
which these insects live. 
The colored plates (drawn with painstaking care by Mr. E. N. 
Fischer) represent a few of the more attractively colored species 
and some of the interesting phases of coloration exhibited by 
these insects. 
Acknowledgments are due to many kind friends, some of whom 
are no longer living, for aid rendered in various ways : for speci- 
mens, to A. L. Babcock, J. Barlow, Wm. Beutenmiiller, F. P. 
Briggs, Mrs. W. F. Buck, Wm. T. Davis, Messrs. S. F., S. W., 
and W. D. Denton, J. H. Emerton, Miss Susy C. Fogg, C. A. 
Frost, R. W. Glaser, Dr. J. L. Hancock, Prof. F. L. Harvey, Prof. 
Marian E. Hubbard, C. W. Johnson, C. J. Maynard, Prof. 
Herbert Osborn, Prof. H. M. Parshley,E. J. Smith, F. H. Sprague, 
B. H. Walden, Dr. E. M. Walker, Prof. C. M. Weed, Rev. H. W. 
203 
