66 



USEFUL BIRDS. 



Black crickets came down by millions and destroyed our grain 

 crops ; ^Jroniising fields of wheat in the morning were by evening 

 as smooth as a man's hand, — devoured by the crickets. . . . At this 

 juncture sea Gulls came by hundreds and thousands, and before the 

 crops were entirely destroyed these Gulls devoured the insects, so that 

 our fields were entirely freed from them. . . . The settlers at Salt 

 Lake regarded the advent of the birds as a heaven-sent miracle. . . . 

 I have been along the ditches in the morning and have seen lumps of 

 these crickets vomited up by the Gulls, so tliat they could again l^egin 

 killing. 



These "lumps of crickets" were probably pellets com- 

 posed of indio;estible portions of the insects, regurgitated 

 by the birds. These crickets (Anabrus simplex) trav- 



Fig. 28. — Gulls saving crops by killing crickets. 



elled in enormous hordes, stopping at no obstacle, even 

 crossing rivers. Several times afterward the crops of the 

 Mormons were attacked by them, and were saved by the 

 Gulls. 1 Dr. A. K. Fisher is authority for the statement 



* This account of the deliverance of the Mormons by the Gulls is vouched for 

 by many witnesses. See Irrigation Age, 1894, p. 188 ; also, Insect Life, Vol. VII, 

 p. 275 ; Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Agricultui-e, 1871, p. 

 76; Annual Report of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture, 1871, p. 79; 

 and Second Annual Report of the United States Entomological Commission, 

 1878-79, p. 166. 



