General Cons i derations. 



species, and that the prevailing winds determine the course 

 therefrom, I have endeavored to show in Chapter III. That 

 all these influences very largely determine the return 

 migration when the insects hatch out in the Mississippi 

 Valley is also doubtless true ; and it is interesting to note 

 in this connection that, according to observations, covering 

 a period of from two to five years, furnished by General 

 Myer, at the request of Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr.,* the pre- 

 vailing winds in May and June, within the region subject 

 to invasion, are from the Gulf of Mexico, or from the south- 

 east and south, i. e., in exactly the opposite direction from 

 which they blow later in the season. Yet, to assume that the 

 migrations are solely dependent for direction on the winds 

 would be incorrect, as there is cumulative evidence that 

 when once the migration has commenced, adverse winds 

 only retard, but do not materially change its course. I 

 have known the insects in their course northwestwardly to 

 remain on the ground for five consecutive days, the while 

 the wind was opposing them, and then to rise and pass on 

 as soon as it died away or blew again from the south. 



LOCUSTS AS FOOD FOR MAN. 



Our relish or disrelish of certain animals for food are 

 very much matters of habit, or fashion ; for we esteem 

 many things to-day which our forefathers considered either 

 poisonous or repulsive. There is nothing very attractive 

 about such cold-blooded animals as turtles, frogs, oysters, 

 clams, crabs, lobsters, prawns, periwinkles, snails, shrimps, 

 mussels, quahaugs or scallops, until we have become accus- 

 tomed to them; and what is there about a dish of locusts, 

 well served up, more repulsive than about a lot of shrimps? 

 for the former feed on green vegetation and are more 



*" The Destructive Locust of the West," Am. Naturalist, Vol. XI, p. 27. 



