124 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol X 



DEIED LOCUSTS AS FOOD FOR CAGE AND GAME BIRDS. 



Notes by Br, A, Gilntlier and Mr, E. C, Cotes. 



In June, 1892, the Government of India received the following letter from 

 Dr. A. Giinther, of the British Mnseum, Natural History : — 



" Some time ago it occurred to me that dried locusts might be utilised for 

 insectivorous cage-birds and game-birds which are now reared at great expense 

 on ant's eggs. 



" Last year I obtained from Cyprus about 200 lb. of oven and sun-dried 

 locusts, and, having ascertained with my own birds on a small scale that 

 the locusts are greedily eaten, I thought it best to offer the remainder to 

 Messrs. Spratt, who have all the appliances for chemical analysis and 

 experimental feeding and the requisite organisation abroad for collecting the 

 material. They have sent me a very favourable report as regards the utility 

 <i)f the article as food. 



" Before proceeding further in the matter, Messrs. Spratt are anxious to 

 know in what quantities locusts could be supplied annually, what the cost of 

 collecting them would be, and from what parts of India they could be most 

 easily exported. Of course, all estimates can be merely approximate, and the 

 amount of material would also vary much in different years. Messrs. Spratt 

 say that they could easily dispose of several tons per annum." 



Dr. A, Giinther's letter was submitted to Mr. E. C. Cotes, Indian Museum, 

 Calcutta, who communicated a note on the subject, from which the follow, 

 ing information is taken : — 



" It is unfortunate that Dr. Giinther's suggestions did not arrive three 

 years ago, for during the last three years India has been passing through 

 a period of invasion by the locust Acridium peregrinum, Oliv., which is 

 practically at an end, and large quantities of locusts, therefore, are no longer 

 available, 



" Dr. Giinther's inquiry as to the quantities in which dried locusts could 

 be supplied from India annually is a difficult question to answer, for in years 

 of locust invasion hundreds or even thousands of tons might easily be pro- 

 cured, while in other years great difficulty would probably be experienced in 

 collecting even a few maunds.* The fact that at the height of the past inva- 

 sion six hundred maunds of locusts were killed in one day in the Kohat 

 station alone, while in the early part of the year 1891 twenty thousand 

 maunds were reported as destroyed in the Jhang district, shows that the 

 quantity available was practically unlimited. 



'« It is only occasionally that Acridium peregrinum is likely to be present 

 in such large numbers as to offer no difficulty in collecting a large supply. 



* A maund = 82 lbs. 



