54. LOCUSTS. 
of Locust sent me in the beginning of September in the same year on 
the part of a farmer in the neighbourhood of Caversham, Oxfordshire, 
who wrote me that he had just purchased some foreign hay, and found 
quantities of Locusts in it to the amount of not less than two hundred 
specimens in one truss. For details, see my ‘Seventeenth Annual 
Report,’ pp. 47-53. 
In the past season, however, as some illness occurred in conse- 
quence of (or, at least, in coincidence with) some horses feeding on 
Locust-infested fodder, it may be of interest just to mention the 
circumstance. 
On June 2nd Mr. Barton sent me a packet containing one hundred 
and sixteen Locusts, now shrunk and flattened and out of shape from 
being closely packed in the Alfalfa, but which, when fresh, would 
have been about the size of the exceedingly nearly allied, if not 
identical, species the North American Migratory Locust, the deridiwmn 
(Schistocerca) americana of Drury, figured at p. 58, and with these, 
fragments of other specimens of the same kind, and the following note 
accompanying :— 
‘‘T am sending you specimens promised. The whole are the 
contents of two bales of Alfalfa of Buenos Ayres, each weighing about 
1 cwt.; in some bales there are scarcely any specimens, but in others 
large quantities. They seem to congregate in swarms.” 
In regard to horses, Mr. Barton mentioned that the first of the 
three employed, one evening showed signs of colic and inflammation, 
and the next morning another horse was attacked; and Mr. Barton 
observed that he ‘“ thought it rather curious, so overhauled the food, 
and discovered the Locusts; at once changed the hay, substituted 
bran for a day,” and the illness vanished. During this time the third 
horse was taken ill with exactly the same symptoms. One noticeable 
feature in the symptoms is that the animal stands with tail straight 
out, and legs stretched out to the fullest extent, and continually 
looks round to his flanks. On June 22nd Mr. Barton further men- 
tioned that this horse ‘was very low for a week, but no doubt 
bran-mashes and a drench every six hours would account for that, 
since I have noticed no difference whatsoever; the animal seems quite 
well.”—(G. B.) Mr. Barton mentioned that he was feeding cows 
with the infested Alfalfa, and could not see that it affected them in 
the least. 
The above observation may possibly be of some interest in con- 
nection with the importation of Alfalfa from a country so greatly 
infested with Locusts as the Argentine districts. -I am not able 
myself to judge, as I in no way understand or study veterinary 
matters; but having been previously asked whether I knew of illness 
occurring in connection with consumption of infested fodder, I just 
