36 NATURE'S REALM. 
a thread-like white line where the split occurs, 
on the back of the head first, extending finally 
from the first joint, connecting the proboscis or 
forceps to the body joint, half an inch in length. 
In three minutes more the head had pressed its 
way out. Gradually the forelegs were with- 
drawn from their sockets, say in one minute. 
Then the whole body swung slowly backward, 
head down and feet outward, suspended (fig. 2) 
with an occasional tremor, as if trying to extri- 
cate the hind part and legs. When it had 
hung for three minutes it then very slowly, like 
an acrobat, brought its body up to the original 
position, withdrew the hind legs and body, and 
in two minutes more stood outside the puba 
skin in full form, an inch long, of a white, waxy 
Fic. 3. 
appearance, with red eyes like rubies. The 
wings showed only as a mass of cramped-up 
white film. In a minute the wings had grown 
to three-quarters of an inch, by measurement ; 
in three minutes to one inch, and in six anda 
half minutes to the full size of one and a quarter 
inches in length and half an inch in breadth. 
In twenty-two minutes the whole process was 
accomplished. 
The next morning I found them scattered 
around the room, on the windows, ceiling and 
tops of the doors, and their body was dark, 
finely variegated, transparent wings, and the 
letter W well defined in the veins of the wings. 
The rings of the body were edged with dull 
orange, and legs same color. 
After the locust has attained its perfect state 
(figs. 3 and 4 showing it in flight and repose) 
they spread out into orchards and forest trees, 
making the woods resound with a sound re- 

sembling the pronunciation of Pharoah. The 
organs of music are internal, placed at the 
base of the abdomen beneath and covered by 
two large plates, as seen in fig. 5. The sound 
issues out of the two holes beneath these plates. 
To the inside of these kettle drums are fastened 
cords that voluntarily contract and expand with. 
great rapidity. 
Naturalists have spoken of locusts as doing 
great damage by eating up all green and ten- 
der plants. This cannot be the seventeen-year 
locust, though so stated in “‘ Animal and Insect 
Biography” and other works. Nothing of the 
kind came under my notice in a very caretul 
study of their habits during their visits in 1834, 
51, 68 and ’85. They appear at different times- 
in different sections. In 1834 I was quite 
young; but my memory became quickened by 
having a little garden, about eight feet square 
of space, assigned me by my uncle in one cor- 
ner of the big one, and I was astonished to find 
the largest part of my crop that came up was. 
locusts, completely riddling the ground. That 
year the grain was borne to the earth by them. 
I did see, however, in one year in Kansas, the 
fields, gardens, corn, and even large-sized 
nursery trees, stripped of the bark clean to the 
white wood, every vestige of green gone, and 
the ground entirely bare. This was done by 
the Rocky Mountain locust, shaped like a 
grasshopper. We could not walk in the halls. 
and rooms of hotels without crushing them 
under foot. When in flight about a mile high 
they were so thick as to darken the sun, their 
wings glistening with silver reflections. 
The female locust is called by the male with 
