THE MIGRATORY LOCUSTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 453 



their feet. We have still to learn the date when these two species be- 

 come winged in California. 



Another account of the locust visitation in 1855 in Sacramento Val- 

 ley has been sent us by an eye-witness, Mr. George Rich, who writes us 

 as follows, January 1, 1878: "About the middle of July, 1855, they 

 came in immense numbers from a southern direction, the wind being, 

 south, passing over the Sacramento plains in a northward direction, 

 destroying every green thing as they passed. Touching the foothills, they 

 covered their sides in multitudes, devastating its surface by gnawing 

 the bark of the shrubs, devouring the leaves, and eating the grass even 

 down to the roots. Since 1855 have never seen them in this section." 

 The same writer, in another communication, states that the swarms 

 arrived about midday (July 15, 1855), covering the ground and filling 

 the air probably half a mile high, taking their departure in the evening 

 of the same day. Vegetables and fruit suffered most, though no crop 

 was exempt from their ravages. With the exception of aid from tur- 

 keys, nothing was done to destroy them or to protect crops. 



185G. — This year, Mr. G. Eich writes us, locusts appeared in smaller 

 numbers in Lower California. In Fresno County the grasshoppers were 

 destructive in 1856. — [W. A. Saunders. 



Thomas Birmingham of the Big Tree (Mariposa) station, told us that 

 in 1856, or near this year, two swarms of locusts came from the south 

 during a period covering the months of June and July, into the San 

 Joaquin Valley. They were very abundant, eating grain, vegetables, 

 fruit-trees, even eating a man's coat, and were very annoying to travelers. 



1859. — " These insects were first seen by me in Pitt Eiver Valley dur- 

 ing the summer of 1859, and in such numbers as actually to cover the 

 ground. So numerous were they that vegetation was entirely destroyed 

 throughout the Valley on the west side of Pitt and Fall Elvers." — [Capt. 

 John Feilner, U. S. A., in the Smith. Eep., 1864. 



Mr. George Ohleger of Yuba, Sutter County, writes that " there have 

 been no destructive grasshoppers in this region since 1859 j this being 

 in the Sacramento Valley, fifty miles north of the capital." 



1862 or 1863.— In Hornitos, Cal., locusts came either in 1862 or 1863, 

 from the south, in June or July, "like a white glistening cloud." They 

 ate the bark of the peach-trees. 



1866 or 1867. — In one of these years a swarm extending 15 miles in 

 width was seen at the 15-mile house near Stockton. The insects came 

 from the north, and were so abundant that they filled a well, as our in- 

 formant (whose name has escaped us) remarked. 



1869.— Mr. W. L. Morton of Tulare County, told us that in 1869 

 locusts were abundant in townships 6, 18 east, and 21, 6 east. They 

 came from the southwest, the last of May till the middle of June, during 

 a period embracing three weeks. They devoured the grapes and leaves 

 of the vines, corn, and wheat. 



1873. — "In 1873 they again migrated to Lower California, doing great 

 damage." — [George Eich. 



