THE ZooLocist—May, 1872. 8071 
the plough. Of the two remedies (though only to a small extent) above 
alluded to, the one was keeping a large body of fowls, to assist the insecti- 
vorous birds that were always seen in numbers about a homestead, 
especially at locust time; but in these days of destruction of the smaller 
birds for sport, or under the mistaken impression that they are all fruit or 
grain eaters, and are therefore indiscriminately shot down, we must not 
wonder that insects of many kinds, including injurious ones, will increase, 
and this I see you also mention. On one of these locust visitations—it 
might have been in 1838, mentioned in your last article—I observed 
immense swarms of a kind of bird, a little larger than an English sparrow, 
hovering like a thick cloud over several of the larger tracts of land where the 
unwelcome visitors were flying, and soon found that they fed principally, if 
not solely, on them. The name of the bird I did not learn, as it disappeared 
with the locusts, as if sent for their especial capture. The other partial 
remedy I mentioned at the time, and which had been previously told me by 
a friend, was the same as your correspondent ‘ Observer’ speaks of, viz., the 
leaves of the castor-oil plant, just.for the purpose, as he says, of protecting 
flowers, &c., ina garden. In past years I have frequently tried this, and 
always found it succeed best when the leaves were fresh. The locusts in 
their flight descended on them, as on everything else of a vegetable nature, 
and died after the first few bites; more locusts took their places, so that 
_ each leaf was nearly covered with dead bodies, others lying all around who 
had only strength left to crawl a few paces off, so quickly did the poisonous 
effects of the sap of the leaf act. 
“*Our reference to locusts last week were confined to the Northern 
Districts, and they occasioned very little notice in Adelaide; but since that 
the townspeople have had ocular proof of the kind of plague that the 
Northern farmers suffered from. On Friday evening, December 15, an 
enormous swarm of locusts passed over the city, darkening the air, and 
creating no little sensation. It appears that for some time they had been 
steadily marching—if the kind of locomotion affected by them can be called 
‘upon a march”—upon the metropolis. We have no positive proof of the 
fact, but it is more than probable that the army mentioned before as having 
reached Kapunda, and as being en route for Gawler, is identical with that to 
which we are now referring. It was seen approaching the city by Mr. Badge, 
who on Friday, whilst about three-quarters of a mile beyond Athelstone, 
encountered a swarm of locusts so thick that his horse refused to face it at 
a faster pace than a walk. ‘The rider had to cover his head to save himself 
from injury by their striking him. They were making their way towards 
Adelaide, passing in solid phalanx towards the south-west. A few stragglers 
remained in the squares and streets, apparently too much fatigued to con- 
tinue the advance, but the main body kept standing or covering a space 
extending over many hundred yards in length and many yards in breadth. 
