46 
spine in the middle of their breast, between the legs composing the front 
pair, in this respect resembling the yonng of the Devastating LocUst j 
and although fully developed their wings do not cover the basal half of the 
hind body or abdomen, thns giving them the false appearance of being 
yonng locusts. From the yonng of the Devastating Locnst they can 
at once be distinguished by never possessing the conspicuous whitish 
spot found near the base of the wings; and if the wings are more at- 
tentively examined it will be found that in the short- winged Pezotettioc 
the nerves of the lower half of each wing extend nearly parallel with 
the lower margin of the wing, whereas in the young of the Devastating 
Locust the veins run in an oblique direction to the lower edge of the 
wings. These characters will enable the most casual observer to dis- 
tinguish the young of the Devastating Locust from any of the short- 
winged locusts known to me to occur in this State. 
NATURAL ENEMIES. 
During my visits to those portions of the State that had suffered 
most from the attacks of the locusts, I was struck with the almost en- 
tire absence of insectivorous birds and insects. Of course every col- 
lector of insects in this State is aware of the fact that in the month of 
August insect life is less abundant in the valleys than it is at almost 
any other season of the year, and this may also account for the scar- 
city of insectivorous birds in the valleys during this time of year. 
Probably the bird that renders the greatest benefit to our horticul- 
turists in the way of destroying locusts is the Arkansas Kingbird (Ty- 
rannus verticalis Say), also known as the Arkansas Fly-catcher, and lo- 
cally as the Bee-bird from its reputed habit of occasionally feeding upon 
Honey Bees. Near the town of Clements, in San Joaquin County, I saw 
a pair of these birds perched in a tall cottonwood tree that grew along 
the edge of the Mokelumne River. This tree stood some distance from 
the banks of the river proper, and just back of it, and still farther from 
the river rose a high bluff, the sides of which were almost perpendicu- 
lar. At certain intervals the Devastating Locusts would rise from the 
ground along the bank of the river and proceed to fly over these bluffs, 
but when nearly opposite the tree upon which the Kingbirds were 
perched, one of these birds would dart forward, seize the locust, and 
return to the tree again to devour its victim. During the few mo- 
ments that I watched this pair they captured quite a large number of 
the locusts, always returning to the same tree to feed upon them. In 
the American Naturalist for August, 1869, Mr. Eobert Ridgway, the 
well-known ornithologist, makes the statement that a specimen of this 
Kingbird, which he kept in a cage, devoured 120 locusts in a single 
day. Were these birds at all numerous, it is evident that they would 
destroy immense numbers of the locusts in the course of a single sea- 
son; but, unfortunately, they were only occasionally seen in any of the 
localities that I visited. 
