218 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



cleanly than either pigs or chickens. Who can doubt but 

 that the French during the late investment of Paris would 

 have looked upon a swarm of these locusts as a manna- like 

 blessing from heaven, and would have much preferred them 

 to stewed rat ? And why should the people of the West, 

 when rendered destitute and foodless by these insects, not 

 make the best of the circumstances, and guard against fam- 

 ine by utilizing them as food ? Having, in 1875, personally 

 tested them for this purpose, I will here record the result 

 very much as originally given to the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, at its meeting for that 

 year. 



In the few words I have to communicate under this head,, 

 it is not my purpose to inflict a long dissertation on edible 

 insects. The subject has been sufficiently treated of by 

 various authors, and especially by Kirby and Spence in 

 their admirable Introduction to Entomology ; while Mr* 

 W. R. Gerard has brought together most of the facts in a 

 paper entitled " Entomophagy," read before the Pough- 

 keepsie Society of Natural History. It is my desire, 

 rather, to demonstrate the availability of locusts as food 

 for man, and their value, as such, whenever, as not infre- 

 quently happens, they deprive him of all other sources of 

 nourishment. 



With the exception of locusts, most other insects that 

 have been used as food for man, are obtained in small 

 quantities, and their use is more a matter of curiosity than 

 of interest. They have been employed either by excep- 

 tional individuals with perverted tastes, or else as dainty 

 tit-bits to tickle some abnormal and epicurean palate. Not 

 so with locusts, which have, from time immemorial, formed 

 a staple article of diet with many peoples, and are used 

 to-day in large quantities in many parts of the globe. 

 Any one at all familiar with the treasures on exhibition 



