270 



USURIOUS INSECTS 



are experienced in the Valley of the Mississippi. The 

 humidity, however, is very much less; the air being like 

 that of a furnace. In sach places, and on the hottest 

 days, the Grasshopper is the most active, and then it at- 

 tains its greatest perfection. When it has reached a cer- 

 tain stage in its existence, it takes to flight. Those 

 hatched in the same locality, and necessarily under the 

 same climatic influences, rise in the air about the same 

 time, but they do not move in concert. Their course is 

 directed by the prevailing winds more than by any other 

 influence. Consequently, in this country, it is generally 

 from northwest to southeast. They alight or move for- 

 ward at pleasure, each individual upon its own account. 

 Many of them fly at an immense height. They have 

 been seen on the highest peaks of the snowy range, four- 

 teen to fifteen thousand feet above the sea, filling the 

 air as much higher as they could be distinguished with a 

 good field glass, glistening in the sunlight like snow- 

 flakes. In crossing the snowy ranges countless myriads 

 of them perish, l^early all that alight for food become 

 so chilled that they are unable to rise again, and in a few 

 days they die. On the great snow fields it is nothing un- 

 common to see the dead so j^lentiful that they might be 

 shovelled up by wagon loads. When the season comes 

 for depositing their eggs, the swarms which happen to be 

 in favorable localities, proceed to do so, after which most 

 of them soon die and the pest disappears. Some doubt- 

 less continue their flight. If the succeeding winter is 

 mild, young Grasshoppers may be found upon sandy, 

 sunny hillsides long before spring, but the great swarms 

 appear with the earliest vegetation. Then it is they are 

 the most destructive. It is a common belief that a young 

 Grasshopper eats more than half a dozen full grown ones. 

 They feed and grow, and in due time take flight, as did 

 the generation before them. But few Grasshoppers are 

 hatched in the mountains, properly speaking. It is true 



