THE SWORD-BEARER. 163 



With this species anothei* one is also found, bearing a con- 

 siderable resemblance to it in color and form, but measuring 

 only four or five tenths of an inch from the head to the end 

 of the body, or from seven to eight tenths to the tips of the 

 wings, which are a Httle longer than the wing-covers. The 

 latter are narrow and taper to the end, which is rounded, but 

 the overlapping portion is not so large as in the common 

 species, and the male has not the two black spots on each 

 Aving-cover. The upper part of the abdomen is brown, with 

 the edges of the segments greenish-yellow, and the piercer, 

 which is nearly three tenths of an inch long, is brown and 

 nearly straight. This little insect comes very near to Lo- 

 custa fasciata of De Geer, who, however, makes no mention 

 of the broad brown stripe on the head and thorax. I therefore 

 presume that our species is not tlie 

 same, and propose to call it Orcheli- 

 mum gracile (Fig. 78), the slender 

 meadow-grasshopper. M. Serville, 

 by whom this genus was instituted, 

 has described three species, two of 

 which are stated to be North Amer- 

 ican, and the remaining one is probably also from this coun- 

 try ; but his descriptions do not answer for either of our 

 species. Both of these kinds of meadow-grasshoppers are 

 eaten greedily by fowls of all kinds. 



One more grasshopper remains to be described. It is 

 distinguished from all the preceding species by having the 

 head conical, and extending to a blunt point between the 

 eyes. It belongs to the genus Conocephaliis^ a word express- 

 ive of the conical form of the head, and, in my Catalogue 

 of the Insects of Massachusetts, bears the specific name of 

 ensiger (Fig. 79, male), the sword-bearer, from the long, 

 straight, sword-shaped piercer of the female. It measures 

 an inch or more from the point of the head to the end of 

 the body, and from one inch and three quarters to two 

 inches to the end of the wing-covers. It is pale green, with 



