17 
rax,) and is then worked off behind, and finally kicked from the hind 
feet in a little white crumpled pellet, that has justly been likened by 
some of our correspondents to a diminutive mushroom. These little 
pellets invariably lie close around the hole in the ground from which 
the young locusts issued. The pellicle begins to split, under ordinary 
conditions of warmth, within a minute from the time the locust is fairly 
out of the ground, and is shed in from one to five minutes, according to 
circumstances. Pale and colorless when first freed from this pellicle, 
the full-born locust is nevertheless at once capable of considerable ac- 
tivity, and in the course of an hour assumes its natural dark gray col- 
oring. Dr. Packard observed (Report to Dr. Hay den, 1877, p. 634) that 
specimens which hatched at 11 a. in. began to turn dark at 3 p. in., thus 
showing that the time may vary; but numerous close observations 
which we have made on single individuals show that an hour seldom 
passes after the amnion is thrown off before the gray color is acquired. 
From this account of the hatching process, we can readily understand 
why the female in ovipositing prefers compact or hard soil to that which 
is loose. The harder and less yielding the walls of the burrow, the 
easier will the young locust crowd its way out. 
Though the covering which envelops the little animal when first it 
issues from the egg is quite delicate, it nevertheless, in the struggles of 
birth, undoubtedly affords much protection, and it is an interesting fact 
that while, as we have just seen, it is shed within a few minutes of the 
time when the animal reaches the free air, it is seldom shed if, from one 
cause or other, there ;^ failure to escape from the soil, even though the 
young locust may be struggling for days to effect an escape. 
While yet enveloped m this pellicle, the animal possesses great forc- 
ing and pushing power, and, if the soil be not too compact, will fre- 
quently force a direct passage through the same to the surface, as 
indicated at the dotted lines (PI. I, Fig. 5, e). But if the soil is at all 
compressed it can make little or no headway, except through the appro- 
priate channel (d). While crowding its way out the antennae and four 
front legs are held in much the same position as within the egg, the 
hind legs being generally stretched. But the members bend in every 
conceivable way, and where several are endeavoriug to work through 
any particular passage, the amount of squeezing and crowding they 
will endure is something remarkable. Yet if by chance the protecting 
pellicle is worked off before issuing from the ground, the animal loses 
all power of further forcing its way out. The instinctive tendency to 
push upward is also remark able. In glass tubes, in which I have had the 
eggs hatching in order to watch the young, these last would always 
turn their heads and push toward the bottom whenever the tubes were 
turned mouth downward ; while in tin boxes, where the eggs were placed 
at different C pths in the ground, the young never desceuded, even 
when they were unable to ascend on account of the compactness of the 
soil abovo. 
26787— No. 25 2 
