Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 197 



east. Moreover, their flight seems to have been irregular, 

 and poorly sustained. Mr. H. P. Beach, County Judge of 

 Ford county, 111., in sending me specimens, wrote, Sep- 

 tember 15 : 



About ten days ago, myriads of grasshoppers flew southward 

 over town. Many of them came down, evidently unable to keep up 

 the journey. They seemed to be all the way from a hundred feet 

 to a quarter or half a mile high, or perhaps very much higher. In 

 looking up toward the sun — the only way they could be seen — the 

 appearance was much like that of a snow-storm looked at in the 

 same way. We have not heard from them since, and of course can 

 give you no idea from " whence they cometh and whither they 

 goeth." 



Mr. B. F, Johnson, the Champaign (111.) correspondent 

 of the Country Gentleman^ who supposed the species to be 

 spretus, also in speaking of these flights, wrote to that 

 paper (Sept. 16, 1875) : 



When first seen, their movements and motions were so unlike 

 what I had conceived their flights to be, that it was not till several 

 disabled or partially exhausted insects had been caught, and their 

 identity with the Kansas species demonstrated, that I was convinced 

 of their true character. I had supposed that these creatures flew 

 in a manner as pigeons and ducks and geese do — straight ahead in 

 a given direction, and with a purpose. On the contrary, every 

 insect seemed to be out on a holiday, and acting independently of 

 all the others. While the vast mass slowly moved south, with an 

 inclination toward the east, there was a constant circularmovement 

 of a vast majority of the whole number of individuals. * * * 

 When it got noised abroad that they were flying, the fact produced 

 a startling sensation. Would they increase in numbers till the sun 

 was darkened, and then descend and devour up every green thing, 

 and leave eggs for a progeny behind them that would repeat the 

 disaster next summer ? These fears were speedily dispelled when 

 their numbers were seen to diminish, and when it was considered 

 that all the grasshoppers which had passed over, did they come 

 down could make but small impression on the ten thousand square 

 miles of corn in Central Illinois. 



Actual examination of specimens from these flying bev- 

 ies over Illinois, showed them to have been composed of 

 three species, viz., the Red-legged, the Atlantic and the 

 Differential locusts : in no instance was a specimen of 



