July i, 1891] 



THE HUMMING BIRD. 



5* 



Cjje Humming §irîx 



The Pilgrim Locust. A Remarkable and 

 Sensational Tale published by the 

 Leading Papers of France and repro- 

 duced in London. 



Daily News, May 19th. 



A Scientific Man killed by Locusts. 



(from our correspondent.) 



PARIS, Monday Night. 



Despatches from Algiers announce the death, 

 under peculiarly horrible circumstances of a well- 

 known savant M. Kunckel d'Herculais, President of 

 the Entomological Society. M. Kunckel, who was 

 travelling in the district of Teniek el Haad, on a 

 Government mission, went on Saturday to the village 

 of Sidi Eral to see deposits of locusts' eggs which 

 had been reported in the neighbourhood. About 

 eleven o'clock, the weather being fiercely hot, M. 

 Kunckel, overcome by fatigue, lay down under a 

 bush to sleep. He was probably awakened by a 

 flight of locusts which are believed to have come 

 from Chellala. They settled down on the very 

 ground where he was resting, and in such numbers 

 that M. Kunckel was buried in their mass. He got 

 up and struggled forward desparately, against this 

 living flood. He trampled down hundreds, but the 

 swarm grew thicker every moment, and the sky was 

 completely darkened. M. Kunckel set fire to the 

 bushes in order to drive them away, but in vain. 

 His cries were not heard, and at length he fainted 

 and was stifled. About three o'clock in the afternoon 

 the "pilgrims," as the locusts are called, took flight 

 again, and a party of natives found the body of M. 

 Kunckel buried under a heap of locusts. His hair, 

 beard, and necktie were completely devoured. " 



When I read the above narration in the Paris and 

 London papers, I thought it was something very 

 startling, but I must say truly that I had great doubts 

 about its veracity ; as, when residing in Mexico, 1 

 have seen many extraordinary passages numbering 

 milliards of these migratory Insects, and never 

 heard of other damages than the complete devasta- 

 tion of all the leaves of trees, plants and grass of the 

 countries visited by this terrible insect, and I was 

 not surprised to hear two days after, that it was all a 

 hoax, and that my friend Kunckel d'Herculais was 

 enjoying a perfect health during all the time that 

 many sensible persons were condoling on his tragic 

 death. 



The pilgrim or Migratory Locust (Acridium inigra- 

 torium) is one Insect Orthoptera very similar in 

 appearance to the vulgar locust, but of a much 

 greater size. It is found in all parts of the World ; 

 but the chief countries which are visited periodically 

 by myriads of these insects are the United States, 

 Mexico, Central and South America, in America, and 

 Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and many other African 

 Countries. The head quarters of these Insects in 

 America are Humboldt Prairies,fand very likely, in 

 Africa, the Deserts of Sahara or the Soudan. 



I remember that in 1877, when travelling from 

 San Francisco (California) to Salt Lake City, all the 

 plains called Humboldt Prairies, situated between 

 Sierra Nevada and Salt Lake, were covered for several 

 hundred miles with young locusts. From morning to 

 night I did not see anything else, and the soil was 

 black with them. In passing, the train crushed im- 

 mense numbers standing on the rails. 



Several years before, when living in San Andres 

 Tuxtla, State of Vera Cruz, Mexico, I assisted to an 

 invasion of these Insects. They alighted near the 

 town, and in the space of two days they devoured all 

 the plantations tor several miles around, as also all 

 the leaves of trees, bushes and grass, leaving the soil 

 and the trees quite bare with the same appearance as 

 the European Country fields after a severe frost, or in 

 the middle of the winter. 



When these formidable invasions take place, the 

 inhabitants fear them as much as the most terrible 

 equinoxial hurricanes or earthqnakes. 



Generally the same localities are invaded during 

 two or three years, then these Insects disappear for a 

 certain number of years. I attribute this cause not 

 to a diminution of the Insects, but to a change of 

 itinerary in their emigration trip. 



These locusts by their voracity and their number is 

 the most formidable plague to vegetation. They 

 hatch in spring, and the want of food being at once 

 necessary, they begin to devour all the grass and 

 leaves of bushes. This lasts for several weeks until 

 their wings are fully developed. 



At that time they have done with all the vegetation 

 of their breeding places, and then take their flight in 

 compact rows by millions and millions, intercepting 

 entirely the light of the sun during their passage. 

 The country where they alight is irrevocably lost. In 

 a very short space of time all traces of vegetation has 

 disappeared and the trees are totally bare of their 

 leaves, while their branches break under the weight of 

 the Insects. Many of them, unable to get sufficient 

 food, dies and their dead bodies, accumulated on the , 

 soil, corrupt the air and are the cause of merciless 

 épidémies, such as plague, etc. 



For the countries which are invaded by the locusts, 

 they are a cause of ruin, famine and epidemy. 



All sorts of methods have been employed up to the 

 present time lor the extermination of these redoubt- 

 able Insects ; but they have been only partially 

 successful and have cost very large sums of money. 

 In Mexico they try to frighten them away by beating 

 drums, by firing guns and fireworks, shouting with all 

 their might, and sometimes they have succeeded and 

 obliged them to alight further away, but at other 

 times, they have not taken the least notice of the 

 noise and have dropped as an hurricane on the plan- 

 tations surrounding the villages, and destroyed 

 everything. 



Immediately after the laying of their eggs they die, 

 and all is quiet again for a little time ; but after a few 

 weeks the young hatches and all the country is in- 

 vaded again with what appears like small black specks 

 jumping about in all directions and devouring all the 

 grass and young leaves which are just coming out 



again. 



The usual thing which the inhabitants generally do 



