78 Indian Museum Notes. [ Vol. III. 



whole of the North- West Provinces, besides overrunning Smd and Knj- 

 putana, and making their way into Kathiawar. Eggs were laid towards 

 the latter part of June 1890, when the rains had well started, through- 

 out the whole of "Western Hajputana, and in the Gurgaon District of 

 the Punjab. The young locusts hatched out in countless numbers in 

 July, and in the case of Western Rajputana they were reported as doing 

 much damage in August. During August and September the flights 

 that were still wandering about, laid more eggs in parts of the Punjab. 

 About September the young locusts, that had been born in the beginning' 

 of the rains, seem to have acquired wings, and from September, on 

 through the cold weather of 1890-91, the nights spread in all directions 

 in the most remarkable manner. They male their way throughout 

 Sind, Punjab and the North-West Provinces. Vast flights also moved 

 through Central India into the Central Proviuces, and thence eastwards 

 into Bengal and Assam, southwards through Berar and Hyderabad into 

 the Madras Presidency, and westwards into the Bombav Deccan. The 

 flights did a good deal of injury in the restricted areas where they 

 settled, but the people were so industrious in driving them off their crops, 

 and the birds destroyed such large numbers, that the damage inflicted 

 was small c msidering the vastness of the invasion. Through December, 

 January and February, flights were still reported from all parts of India, 

 but the cold and damp, combined with the relentless persecution of the 

 birds and the people, had thinned their numbers and reduced them to so 

 miserable a state that they were able to do little or no damage. 



In March 1891 some of the locusts obtained from the flight which 

 passed over Calcutta in November 1890 began to lay eggs in their cages 

 in the Indian Museum. About the same time, owing no doubt to the 

 increasing warmth at the close of the winter rains, the flights in the 

 Punjab became more active, and egg-laying took place at first in the 

 north-west of the Punjab and Sind, and afterwards in Baluchistan. 

 In May the young locusts hitched from these eggs became extremely 

 numerous in the Punjab. 



The rabi crops were generally too far advanced in growth to be 

 much damaged by them, but the extra rabi and the early sown kharif 

 crops — especially cotton — suffered severely. The grass in some tracts was 

 completely eaten down, and almost every bush and tree was stripped of 

 its leaves. Some idea may be formed of the numbers in which the 

 insects appeared, from the fact that railway trains were said to have often 

 found it difficult to proceed, owing to the rails being made slippery 

 by the crushed bodies of the young locusts. A regular warfare was 

 waged against the insects, under the leadership of the district officials, 

 who organized the people for the purpose of collecting the eggs and 



