Habits, and Power for Injury. 



103 



ties have been described as distinct species. The Coral- 

 winged Locust is also an elegant species, the colors being 

 brown-black, brick-yellow inclining to brown, and a still 

 paler, whitish-gray ; the hind wings varying from vermil- 

 lion-red to pink, with more or less yellowish -green, and 

 with a broad external dusky border, broadest and palest 

 at tip. The hin4 shanks are yellow with black-tipped 

 spines. This species is also quite variable, and at least half 

 a dozen of its slight variations have been seized upon 

 from which to fabricate new species. 



DIRECTION" TAKEN BY THE DEPARTING SWARMS. 



While, as we have just seen, the principal direction of 

 the invading swarms is south and southeast, the principal 

 direction of the departing swarms is north and northwest. 

 This is emphatically the case with those that rise from the 

 lower Missouri Valley country. In other words, there is 

 a return migration toward the home of the immediate 

 parents. That the insects instinctively seek this direction 

 there can, I think, be no doubt ; for while they depend in 

 great part on the wind for propulsion, and without its aid 

 would be unable to migrate to very great distances, I have 

 a large number of reports to show that whenever the wind 

 blew from the north or northwest, the locusts came down 

 and awaited a change to a more favorable direction. They 

 begin to rise when the dew has evaporated, and descend 

 again toward evening. A swarm passing over a country yet 

 infested with the mature insects, constantly receives accre- 

 tions from these, and is, consequently, always more dense 

 in the afternoon than in the forenoon. In rising, the in- 

 sects generally face the wind, and it is doubtful if they 

 could ascend to any great height without doing so. They 

 are, I believe, good navigators, and know how to take 

 advantage of the different air currents. The rate at which 



