604 REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



\Vben eggs are not disturlied hy tlie plow frost does not destroy them. During the 

 years uanif (I Ihey visited all parts of the Territory. Thousands of bushels were de- 

 stroyed by the organized laV)ors of the people, by tiriving them and burying them in 

 trenches, by setting trajjs in inigating ditches, by covering the ground with straw, 

 under which they would shelter for the night, and in the morning burning the straw 

 and insects. Men, women, and children, with the village poultry, in some' places, 

 moved to the tields in wagons and fought the comuion enemy from hatching to Hying 

 time. In some parts, it was estimated there were one hundred bushels of hoppers to 

 the acre. 



A notable local mathematician estimated that in otte season, one and a halfmiWon 

 Imhels were destroyed by lighting in Great Salt Lake and drifting on the shores, form- 

 ing an immense belt. 



THE LOCUST IN NEW MEXICO. 



Professor Thomas also states that it breeds in Snake Valley, Idaho. 

 That it is comnion and destructive at times in New Mexico is shown 

 jrom the statement published in the Monthly Rei)ort of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, at Washington, I). C, for July, 1876, where it is 

 stated that the corn and oats were injured and the wheat-crop half 

 destro.yed by the " grasshopper," which must be C. spretiis, as Taos is 

 near the Colorado line. Professor Tliomas reports a few specimens of 

 C. Hxnctun from New Mexico and Arizona in collections made by Lien 

 tenant Wheeler's Expeditions during the last four years, and he himself 

 found a few specimens south of Eaton Mountains in 18G9. In 1875, 

 however. Lieutenant Carpenter, as he writes me, did not see any swarms 

 in the region extending from Fort Garland to ISanta Fe. " I could not 

 learn," he adds, " that they had ever been troublesome in northern 

 New Mexico." 



THE LOCUST IN NEVADA. 

 I 



Prof. Cyrus Thomas has kindly afforded me the following facts regard- 

 ing the occurrence of Calo2)tenus spretus in Nevada, in a letter dated 

 March 1, 1877 : 



I saw C. Kirrctits in 1871 in abxmdance along the Humboldt River in Nevada, most of 

 the way from where the Central Pacific Railroad strikes it (going west) to the sink 

 or place where it disappears. At one point they were quite abundant, and evidently 

 preparing to migrate, flying up in the air, their wings presenting that jteculiar glassy, 

 snowy appearance with which you are no doubt familiar. This, if I recollect rightly, 

 was west of Humboldt Station ; they were quite abundant at that statiou (Humboldt), 

 where we dined, (going west), but were noD migrating there or then ; those referred 

 to as seen west of llumboldt being seen as w^e returned east. You probably remember 

 that saline or alkaline belt at the northwest extremity of Great Salt Lake ; just beyond 

 that I began to observe them, and from thence — not continuously, but at certaiu 

 points — from there to, and a, short distance w^est of, Humboldt Sink. The collections 

 made by Wheeler's party in Southeast Nevada bad no specimens which I ccuild posi- 

 tively say came from tliat section. That year (ItiTl), as wo went out (June), we saw 

 but few specimens in Salt Lake Valley, but they were quite numerous when we re- 

 turned from California in August. They were also numerous in Cache Valley and 

 Southern Ithiho ; in moderate numbers west of the range in Montana as well as east. 



From the facts thus afibrded by Professor Thomas, it is not improb- 

 al)le that this species in its normal form will be found to commonly occur 

 in the treeless regions of the entire State of Nevada, and also of the east- 

 ern half of Oregon, and also, perhaps, of Washington Territory, west 

 of the Sierra Nevada, to the south, and the Cascade IMountains to the 

 north. Among these ranges, and to the westward, when the rain-fall 

 is very considerable, and the land clothed with forests, we are to look 

 for the non migratory variety, Atlanis, which may there exist under 

 conditions resembling tho.se in which it lives in the Mississippi Valley, 

 and the forest-clad Atlantic States and Canada. 



