227 
of from fifty to eighty feet from the ground, after which they would 
continue at about this height until lost to view. The migration was not 
continuous, there being intervals of from ten to twenty minutes, during 
which time scarcely a grasshopper would be seen on the wing. They 
would then start up again, and in a comparatively short time thousands 
of them could be seen upon the wing in every direction. This migra- 
tion ceased at about half past three o'clock in the afternoon. Scarcely a 
single winged specimen remained where there had been thousands of 
them before the migration began. It was feared that the migration was 
only temporary, and that they would return again at the changing of the 
wind, but this had not happened at the time of leaving this district 
about three days later. This migration occurred in the locality where 
these grasshoppers were the most numerous. It was reported that a 
similar migration, but on a much smaller scale, had also taken place in 
one or two of the other infested districts. 
Other kinds of grasshoppers occurring in this district. — Associated 
with the destructive species were five other kinds of grasshoppers, 
none of which were at all abundant. The species most frequently met 
with was the small, red-legged species, Melanoplus femur-rubrum 
DeG.; this was observed in all stages excepting the egg, but there 
was scarcely one specimen of this species to one thousand of the 
americana. The four other species observed in the infested district 
were the following: Dissosteira Carolina Linn.; Chimerocephala viridi- 
fasciata DeG.: Encoptolophus sordidus Burm.; and Rippiscus tuber* n 
lotus Beauv. The first of these was only occasionally met with, while 
the others were rarely seen. 
Cause of the undue increase. — Mr. W. P. Moomaw informed the writer 
that the species which occasioned so much damage the present season 
has infested that district as long as he can remember. He has been 
familiar with its appearance from boyhood, but it had never appeared 
in destructive numbers in that locality prior to last autumn, at which 
time it was present in unusual numbers in his orchard, attacking the 
leaves of his apple trees as well as gnawing large cavities in the grow- 
ing fruit. At the same time it also occurred in a neighboring corn- 
field, which, in a comparatively short time, became almost completely 
defoliated. It was the almost universal opinion of persons living in 
the infested district that the past winter was the mildest one they had 
experienced within the recollection of the proverbial '-oldest inhabi- 
tant; "and this, taken in conjunction with something unusually favor- 
able to the rapid increase of the grasshoppers last season, is doubtless 
responsible for their appearing in such large numbers the present 
season. It has already been stated above that, in all probability, none 
of the individuals of this species deposit eggs the same season that 
they acquire wings, but pass the winter in some sheltered place and 
deposit their eggs early in the following summer; it therefore follows 
that any condition of the weather during the winter season that is 
