66 USEFUL BIRDS. 
Black crickets came down by millions and destroyed our grain 
crops; promising fields of wheat in the morning were by evening 
as smooth as a man’s hand,— devoured by the crickets. . . At this 
juncture sea Gulls came by hundreds and thousands, and before the 
crops were entirely destroyed these Gulls devoured the insects, so that 
our fields were entirely freed from them. .. The settlers at Salt 
Lake regarded the advent of the birds as a heaven-sent miracle... . 
I have been along the ditches in the morning and have seen lumps of 
these crickets vomited up by the Gulls, so that they could again begin 
killing. 
These “lumps of crickets” were probably pellets com- 
posed of indigestible portions of the insects, regurgitated 
by the birds. These crickets (Anabrus purpurascens) trav- 
Beg 
a 
[——— 
Fig. 28.— Gulls saving crops by killing crickets. 
elled in enormous hordes, stopping at no obstacle, even 
crossing rivers. Several times afterward the crops of the 
Mormons were attacked by them, and were saved by the 
Gulls.1 Dr. A. K. Fisher is authority for the statement 
1 This account of the deliverance of the Mormons by the Gulls is vouched for 
by many witnesses. Sce Irrigation Age, 1894, p. 188; also, Insect Life, Vol. VII, 
p. 275; Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 1871, p. 
76; Annual Report of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture, 1871, p. 79; 
and Second Annual Report of the United States Entomological Commission, 
1878-79, p. 166. * 
