43 



ney the locusts may be on the decrease — a result, perhaps, of some 

 concerted efforts on the part of the farmers toward their destruction 

 during the past two or three 3'oars. 



It was also found upon investigation that these insects were not 

 nearly so numerous at Sidney as they were farther to the east along 

 the Lodgepole Creek and the South Platte River. Still, even at Sid- 

 ney, wherever and whenever cultivated fields occurred, more of these 

 insects were to l)e met with than is normally the case in the region. 

 They were of the usual species observed under similar conditions the 

 present year, viz., various species of the Melanopll, as dljfcrent!((lis^ 

 hlvlttatus^ fernur-ruhraiit., and atlanis. Some of the other forms that 

 were not so rare as at times in the past were species like M. packardii^ 

 M. occidentalism M. luriduH, M. infantilis^ etc., w-hile a few of the 

 prairie-inhabiting species mentioned before were also quite plentiful. 



In conversing with Mr. George Oberfelder, a merchant of Sidney 

 and a ranchman, I learned that at Lodgepole the locusts were not 

 nearly so plentiful on his ranch as elsewhere in the neighborhood. It 

 developed from further conversation with him that on this particular 

 ranch are located several quite extensive private fish ponds and low and 

 swampy ground, where two or three species of blackbirds breed, and 

 were, at the time referred to, gathered in immense flocks. The presence 

 of these birds will undoubtedly explain this comparative f i-eedom from 

 locusts on the ranch in question. Mr. Oberfelder also mentioned the 

 fact that a great destruction of the bird life, in general, of the region 

 had been accomplished during recent years by local and other would-be 

 sportsmen. 



While at this place, in conversation with a gentleman from Gering, 

 Scotts Bluft' County, it was learned that during the present 3'ear there 

 were more grasshoppers in the Pumpkinseed Valley, to the south of 

 Gering and Mitchell, than there were last year, and also more during 

 the present year (1901) than at Gering and Mitchell. This he accounted 

 for on the ground of a partial migration southward both by the old 

 insects prior to their ^^^ laying last fall, and again since hatching 

 during the past spring and earl}- summer. Just what species of these 

 insects were present in this last-named region was not ascertained, but 

 it is yjresumed that most of them were of the kinds noted at nearl}- all 

 other points where cultivated vegetation sufl'ered from grasshopper 

 depredations. It is also quite evident that several of the prairie- 

 frequenting species like M. pad'ardii^ M. occidentalism the Aulocaras, 

 some of the species of Trimerotropis, Tnichyi'hachis kiowa^ Opeia 

 ohscuram etc., were present in more than normal numbers, since a 

 scarcity of food on the ranges is reported, notwithstanding the fact 

 that more than the usual amount of rain had fallen during the past 

 spring and summer. 



In running west from Bridgeport to Guernsey, Wj^o., it was observed 



