202 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
vegetation of Mexico and Yucatan, and as having produced 
famine and suffering among the people, especially in California. 
The Jesuit, Father Michael del Barco, who lived as a missionary 
in that country for thirty years, relates that from the arrival 
of the Jesuits, in 1697 to the year 1722, the inhabitants were 
free from the plague; but in the latter year the sufferings of 
the people were awful. In 1746 and the three years following 
locusts swarmed without intermission, and after this were 
absent until 1753 and 1754; and finally, before the expulsion 
of the Jesuits in 1765; and the plague continued during the 
two following years. Clavigero, in his ‘ History of Cali- 
fornia, gives a very interesting account of these several 
invasions, and describes the appearance and natural history 
of the insect with great minuteness :-— 
“The birth of these new grasshoppers has no particular 
time, but is dependent upon the early or late appearance of 
the rains, but they generally hatch during the latter part of 
September or early in October....... Their life; from birth 
to death, lasts ten months, during which they cast their coats 
twice, and change their colours five times. When the wings 
have become of sufficient strength and the body at its 
maturity, they then begin to ascend into the air and fly like 
birds, and commence their ravages in every direction, deso- 
lating the fields of every green thing. 'I‘heir numbers become 
so extraordinary that they soon form clouds in the atmo- 
sphere, of which the rays of the sun cast a shadow as they 
fly. They unite in masses of ten to twelve thousand, always 
following their conductors, and flying in a direct line without 
falling behind, for they consume every growing thing before 
them. To whatever height their guides conduct them to ~ 
obtain a sight of their food, they follow; and as soon as 
growing crops or any verdure is sighted, instantly the swarm 
will alight, and speedily devour and devastate the fields 
around to that extent, and with that promptitude, that when 
they are seen by a new swarm of their fellows there is not 
anything more left to injure or consume. This lamentable 
insect-plague is bad enough in old and cultivated countries, 
but in the miserable peninsula of California, where they eat 
up the crops, green trees, fruits, and pastures, they cause 
great mortality in the domestic animals of the missions, and, 
with the effect of their ravages on the cereals and other 
