114 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



cephahts), Yellow-billed Cuckoo {Coccygus Americanus), 

 Cat-bird (Mimics Carolinensis), Red-eyed Vireo ( Vireo 

 olivaceus), Great-crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus), 

 and Crow Blackbird ( Quiscalus versicolor) ,species that had 

 not been noticed to feed on them before. The Shrike, or 

 Butcher-bird, impales them upon thorns and other pointed 

 substances ; and a number of other birds, as well as rep- 

 tiles — e. g., toads, frogs and snakes, and the Box-turtle — 

 feed upon them ; while the Skunk, Striped Squirrel, and 

 the Field Mouse do good work in devouring the eggs. 



INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS. 



The full-grown insects are not infrequently infested with 

 a long, thread-like worm, well known by the popular name 

 of " hair-worm," and erroneously supposed by many good 

 people to be animated horse hairs. Specimens are often 

 taken which are thrice as long as the locust from which 

 they come. These belong generically to either Gordius or 

 Mermis. Mr. G. F. Gaumer has examined several speci- 

 mens infested with hair-worms, one of which was eighteen 

 and a half inches long. I myself have taken a specimen 

 six and a half inches long, which proves, upon comparison^ 

 to be our commonest species, Gordius aquations. But by 

 far the most effective helps in weakening the vast armies 

 of locusts are the parasitic and predaceous insects, albeit 

 their work is perhaps less noticeable and less appreciated. 

 Passing over the few — like certain species of Digger 

 Wasps, belonging to the genus Scolia, which occasionally 

 bury a few specimens as provision for their young ; vari- 

 ous spiders ; the ferocious Asilus flies, which occasionally 

 pounce upon a specimen, and suck out its juices, and the 

 omnivorous ant, which sometimes feeds on the eggs, and 

 on the weak, sickly and disabled hoppers — I will treat more 

 particularly of those parasitic and predaceous species which 



