Tue ZooLocist—May, 1872. 3073 
Swarms alighted upon various patches of vegetation ; one of couch-grass, we 
heard of, over which the locusts settled two deep, and were killed wholesale 
with whips. They attacked less zealously a small plantation of lucerne, the 
flavour of which seemed hardly to their taste. Near it a number of fowls 
collected, and seemed to be well employed in picking up specimens of 
Natural History. Mr. George H. Glover writes the following from Kers- 
brook on the 19th December :—‘ The locusts were first seen in this neigh- 
bourhood on Friday last; they still increased in what we would now call 
small numbers, for at about eleven o'clock yesterday morning (Monday, the 
18th) they began to come in clouds, or rather in one continual cloud. The 
work of destruction was then commenced in earnest. Ina very short time 
acres and acres of potatoes were cleared of their leaves; the ground, grass, 
potatoes, and fruit-trees from the bottom to the tops are literally covered 
with them: they are so thick that we have enough to do to go through the 
gardens where there is anything green. The first things they eat most are 
potato-tops, and reeds and grass. Of course I shall be able to tell more 
about it in a few days. Their direction here is from north-west to south- 
east.’ Some anxiety has been shown as to the extent of the ravages in 
Dr. Schomburgk’s domain of the marauding armies of locusts; but it is 
gratifying to learn that, while verbenas and some dainty flowers have fared 
badly, the gardens as a whole have not suffered much. The bulk of the 
leafage of shrubs and ornamental trees would probably have been cleared 
but for the pasture-land which adjoins the pleasure-ground, and the plots of 
couch and other grasses that have been so tastefully laid out. On these 
spots the hordes settled in myriads, and in many places nothing remains 
but the bare brown earth and a few tussocks where there was formerly a fine 
bright green sward, soft as velvet and refreshing to the eye. The pests 
swept over the grass and ate it far closer than sheep would have done. The 
Director is yet thankful that this satisfied them, and the locusts in conse- 
quence spared what was of vastly more value. Well watering the plots will 
restore the artificial grasses, and ere long a fresh crop will spring. 
“Other colonies as well as our own have been suffering from a similar 
visitation. From Echuca we hear that incalculable mischief has been done 
to the standing crops in the district; but the local paper adds :—‘ It may 
_ be useful to agriculturists to learn that the larkspur is exceedingly fatal to 
these insects. They may be seen lying dead in heaps in gardens where 
this plant is cultivated.’ 
“ Mr. M. Symonds Clark, in a letter to the ‘ Register,’ writes :—‘ Of 
birds which destroy locusts we have a great many species. A very old 
colonist has informed me that quail were formerly very abundant upon the 
Adelaide Plains, and that on examining the crops of some of these birds 
which he had shot he found them to be full of grasshoppers. Probably 
hawks of all kinds, crows, native magpies, shrikes, laughing jackasses, 
