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ZOOLOGY 



Fi';, 0. — Tlie home of tlie short-horned grasshoiipers. 



various times this species was impelled by some cause, prob- 

 ably overcrowding, to fl}' eastward from its mountain home 

 in countless numbers and to devastate the lowlands as far 

 east as the Mississippi River. From 1873 to 1877 the Rocky 

 ]Mountain locust was so destructive to vegetation in this re- 

 gion tliat C'ongress appointed a commission to investigate the 

 species. In describing its effect the commission reports : — 



" Falling upon a cornfield, the insects convert in a few hours the 

 green and promising acres into a desolate stretch of bare, spindUng 



