232 GLEANINGS FROM NATUItfi. 



for himself by a little patient, personal investiga- 

 tion. 



To the people of ancient times the "grasshopper" 

 of to-day was the "locust," one of the seven plagues 

 of Egypt. The scientific men of this country have 

 long endeavored to have them called " locusts" in the 

 United States, but the majority of people persist in 

 calling them '^grasshoppers," and give the name 

 "locust" to those noisy insects which once every sev- 

 enteen years invade our fields and forests in such 

 countless numbers. To my mind "grasshopper" is 

 the better and more expressive name for the insect 

 with which we have to deal, and, though " locust" has 

 the priority, as the wise men say, yet we shall relegate 

 it to the shades of the past and know our subject by 

 its most common title. 



To the average observer a grasshopper is a grass- 

 hopper, nothing more like 



" The primrose on the river's brim " 



was to Peter Bell. But to the naturalist, or to any 

 person who will keep his eyes and ears open as he 

 walks about, there are grasshoppers and grasshop- 

 pers not individuals, but different kinds, each with 

 interesting facts to be learned concerning it. Over 

 520 species inhabit the United States, 51 of which have 

 been taken by myself within the limits of Indiana. 



Most of these pass the winter in the egg stage, the 

 eggs, in early autumn, being deposited in the earth 

 by the mother insect in compact masses of forty to 

 sixty each in the manner shown in the accompanying 

 cut. About mid- April these eggs begin to hatch and 



