66 



USEFUL BIRDS. 



Black crickets came down by millions and destroyed our grain 

 crops ; jjromising 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 

 crojjs 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 ditclies in tlie morning and have seen lumps of 

 these crickets vomited up by tlie Gulls, so that they could again l^egin 

 killing. 



These "lumps of crickets" were probably pellets com- 

 posed of indigestible portions of the insects, regurgitated 

 by the birds. These crickets {Anahrus siinplex) trav- 



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



V* I I, 



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 Agriculture, 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. 



