380 
destroyed and shipped to eastern markets 
from points west of Saint Louis, Mo. 
“The next spring, when the eggs of the 
locusts began to hatch out, it was discoy- 
ered, too late, that there were no birds to 
devour the insects that were so rapidly 
growing, and must subsist upon the crops 
until able to fly to other localities. 
“Tt is safe to estimate that a gill [about 
0.12 litre] of young locusts, from one day 
to two weeks old, will number 1000. Yet 
a gill would be a small day’s ration for a 
prairie fowl, or half that amount for a 
PSYCHE. 
quail. It can readily be seen that these 
young insects, no larger when first hatched 
than a grain of rye would soon have 
been exterminated had that quantity 
of birds been preserved for the purpose ; 
instead of which, from an apparent neces- 
sity, the birds were destroyed and conse- 
quently the total crops of the state of Kan- 
sas and western Missouri, Nebraska and 
part of Iowa were also destroyed. 
‘Is it not time some protection was 
afforded these feathered friends? Be 
ON A HABIT OF SCOLOPENDRA MORSITANS. 
BY GEORGE DIMMOCK, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 
The note by Mr. J. W. Freese, on page 
290 of the present volume of PsycnE, upon 
the habit observed in a species of Phalan- 
gium, or harvest-man, of putting a woun- 
ded part of its leg to its mouth, reminds 
me of an analogous habit of Scolopendra 
morsitans. 
Last March, while at Banyuls-sur-mer, 
in the eastern Pyrenees, I took advantage 
of the abundance of S. morsitans in that 
region to see what would be the result of 
combats between that poisonous myriapod 
and Buthus occitanus, a scorpion not rare 
in the same region. Without detailing 
their mode of fighting it suffices to say here 
that the Scolopendra was usually badly 
lacerated by the violent strokes of the 
sting of the Buthus, the latter animal always 
being victor. After receiving a stroke 
from the scorpion the myriapod immediate- 
ly, in fact with apparent haste, began work- 
ing at the wound with its mouth-parts, 
seeming to eat the fluids exuded from its 
body. For atime the legs of the myriapod 
were paralyzed near the wound, the scor- 
plon’s poison apparently acting on the neigh- 
boring nervous centers, but in a few minutes 
the myriapod recovered the use of its legs, 
and was only killed after repeated serious 
tearing of its body by the scorpion’s sting. 
It is possible that the Scolopendra trans- 
fers much of the scorpion’s poison from 
the wounds to its stomach, or even that 
some curative fluid is poured upon them 
to neutralize the scorpion’s poison, but it 
seems more likely that the process is one 
of simple cleaning such as the Scolopendra 
would employ if any extraneous matter 
was put upon the surface of its body, the 
pain of the wounds only serving to direct 
immediate attention to them. The same 
result would probably follow the applica- 
tion of any irritant upon the Scolopendra, — 
and with less rapidity if any viscid fluid 
was daubed uponits body. Many mandib- 
ulate insects cleanse their limbs with their 
mouth-parts, and I have often seen Scolo- 
pendra use its mouth-parts to clean its an- 
tennae, legs, and the surface of its body. 
Cambridge, 27 Nov. 1882. 
