68 USEFUL BIRDS. 



dred to the square foot. Birds soon found them, and the 

 ground was frequented by Blackbirds, Plover, Curlews, 

 Prairie Chickens and small land birds. Long before the 

 middle of June most of the locusts had disappeared. In 

 1886 locusts, he says, invaded Cedar and Dixon counties in 

 swarms that darkened the sun. Nevertheless, at one point 

 under observation the great number of birds that attacked 

 these insects very materially lessened their numbers. In 

 1869 more than ninety per cent, of the locusts in one 

 neighborhood were destroyed, apparently by birds, in one 

 week. Other experiences are given, and several interesting 

 letters from farmers are published, one of which follows : — 



Dear Sir: — In answer to your question about the birds and the 

 locusts, I must say this : every farmer that shoots birds must be a fool. 

 I had wheat this last spring on new breaking. The grasshoppers came 

 out apparently as thick as the wheat itself, and indeed much thicker. I 

 gave up that field for lost. Just then great numbers of Plover came, 

 and flocks of Blackbirds and some Quail, and commenced feeding on 

 this field. They cleaned out the locusts so well that I had at least 

 three-fourths of a crop, and I know that without the birds I would not 

 have had any. I know other farmers whose wheat was saved in the 

 same way. S. E. Goodmore. 



Fremont, Neb. 



Another farmer wrote that the locusts hatched in immense 

 numbers in his corn fields, but flocks of Blackbirds came and 

 destroyed the insects, so that he raised a good crop. In an- 

 other case, related by State Senator Crawford, a wheat field 

 was swept clean by the locusts when the wheat was about 

 two inches high; but flocks of Blackbirds came and de- 

 voured the locusts, and the wheat sprang up again and made 

 a good crop. The members of the United States Entomo- 

 logical Commission were much impressed with the value of 

 birds as locust destroyers. They said that the ocular dem- 

 onstration of the usefulness of birds as insect destroyers was 

 " so full and complete that it was impossible to entertain any 

 doubt on this point." In one instance a farmer took one 

 of the members of the commission out into the field, to 

 show him how numerously the young locusts were hatching. 



