Cflironological History, 31 



Locust ((Edipoda migratoria, Linn), though in Africa 

 and Asia the Acridium perigrinum and the Caloptenus 

 Italicus have similar destructive and migratory powers. 

 All these insects belong to the same family as our own 

 species, and the last named, even to the same genus. 



LOCUST RAVAGES IN AMERICA. 



While the chronological record of locust invasions and 

 devastations in the " Old World," is full and complete, 

 the record of such invasions in our own country has never 

 been fully written. The most complete record that I know 

 of, is that by Alexander S. Taylor, of Monterey, Cal., pub- 

 lished in the Smithsonian Report for 1858, (pp. 200 — 213), 

 to which I am indebted for the earlier accounts, which 

 follow. From what is here given, it is very evident that 

 these insects have occasionally proved great plagues from 

 the earliest settlement of the country ; and there can be 

 no doubt that from time immemorial, or since our conti- 

 nent assumed its present configuration, they have from 

 time to time played the same role of devastators, and that 

 the only exceptional circumstance about the 1874 and 1876 

 irruptions, compared with those of former years, is the 

 larger area of settled and cultivated country devastated, 

 and the consequent greater amount of distress entailed. 



The earliest record I can find of locust injuries in 

 America, is in Gage's West Indies, under date of the 

 year 1632. In speaking of their visitation in Guatemala, 

 he says : 



" The first year of my abiding there it pleased God to send one 

 of the plagues of Egypt to that country, which was of Locusts, 

 which I had never seen till then. They were after the manner of 

 our Grasshoppers, but somewhat bigger, which did fly about in 

 numbers so thick and infinite that they did truly cover the face of 

 the sun, and hinder the shining forth of the beams of that bright 

 planet. Where they lighted, either upon trees or standing corn, 

 there was nothing expected but ruin, destruction and barrenness ; 



