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favorable to them in their winter quarters will result in a correspond- 
ing increase in their ranks during- the succeeding summer. That 
such conditions existed in an exaggerated degree during the past 
winter has already been stated above, and the unusual increase in 
numbers the present season was therefore only what might have been 
expected under the circumstances. With a return to the normal con- 
ditions of weather the coming winter, we may reasonably expect that 
they will again be reduced to their usual, not particularly destructive, 
numbers. 
Natural enemies. — The absence of insect-eating birds within the 
infested district was very noticeable. During the four days spent in 
that district not a single bird of any kind was observed to feed upon 
the grasshoppers. Barnyard fowls fed sparingly upon them, but 
whenever one of the red-legged species appeared upon the scene, the 
fowls at once ceased pursuing the larger ones and went in search of 
the former. Turkeys were reported to feed greedily upon them, and 
when the latter did not appear in excessive numbers the turkeys 
succeeded in preventing them from injuring the corn-fields to any 
great extent. Ducks also fed upon them, and several cases were 
reported where ducks had died, apparently from haviug partaken too 
freely of them. The only insect observed feeding upon the grass 
hoppers was a large black beetle, Harpalus caliginosus Fab., which was 
caught in the act of feeding upon a half-grown specimen. These 
beetles were quite numerous in the infested district, and doubtless 
destroy large numbers of the unfledged individuals. A medium- sized 
black wasp, Priononyx atrata St. Farg., which was also rather common, 
confined its attention solely to the red-legged species, which she would 
render helpless with her sting, then get astride of it, sieze it by 
the antennae and drag it to her nest in the ground. It was somewhat 
curious that, although other kinds of grasshoppers were present, this 
wasp always selected a red-legged specimen for her victim. This 
same kind of wasp also occurs in California, and there it also confines 
its attacks to one kind of grasshopper, the Melanoplus devastator Scud., 
which is very similar, both in size and color, to the red-legged species. 
Remedies employed. — A short time after the wheat had been cut, the 
young grasshoppers which had hatched out in these fields began to 
migrate into the adjacent fields of corn, where their presence was soon 
made manifest by the large holes which they gnawed in the corn leaves. 
When this was first observed many of the farmers spread dry straw 
along the side of the infested corn-fields and drove the grasshoppers 
upon it, then set fire to the straw ; in this way many thousands of the 
young were destroyed, and in cases where they did not occur in too 
great numbers the corn -fields were protected by an occasional repetition 
of this method. In the worst infested districts, however, this means 
was found to be wholly inadequate, owing not only to the excessive 
numbers of the grasshoppers but also to the fact that their coming was 
