88 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
sarily propel themselves by the use of their wings, and this can only be 
done with the head in the direction they are moving. 
But one very careful observer (A. L. Child) whose letter is' quoted 
hereafter says that they move faster than the wind. How this can be, 
except where the wind is light and they are moving by real flight, it is 
impossible to conceive, at least it is impossible if they move backwards 
as heretofore stated. 
Koppen' 83 says that during flight they have the feet drawn up under 
the thighs. lie also quotes the observation of his father, P. Koppen, 134 
thai — 
Tho locusts camo over the sea, having come without doubt out of the laud of the 
Cossacks of tho Black Sea, from north-northeast to south-southwest. All, as dis- 
tinctly seen, did not have their bodies straight in the direction of the flight held; 
probably necessitated so to steer themselves in their flight through the air. 
Frauenfeld, 105 who observed an immense locust flight in Manila, says 
that— 
Usually they fly regularly with the tibiae drawn up, the body at an angle of 40° or 
50° to tho direct lino of flight, with the tip of the left wing below. 
Koppen, from whose work we take this quotation, adds that he has 
also observed this sidewise posture of the locust during flight. That 
many a time of an evening when circling toward the north or south he 
had observed that they flew sidewise, with the head toward the sun, 
and at the same time sweeping with the wind, which was blowing out of 
the west; in their fall they had thus, as in their flight, the wind on the side. 
We may add thai we have also observed this sidewise movement, 
which appears to be very common with them, and is probably adopted 
when they desire to vary their course somewhat from that of the wind. 
Bussegger 186 remarks that what struck him most forcibly was that 
the locusts when about to alight for repose, or to eat, turned round with 
their heads opposite to the direction of flight, and that this was so con- 
stantly observed that he concluded it was a characteristic of the animal. 
Lichtenstein informed Koppen that he had observed in Africa great 
locust flights, not against and not with the wind, but, as might be said, 
with half wind. 
When the air is calm and warm and they are ready to move they will 
be seen rising in the air, in short flights, and often moving aimlessly in 
circles. They appear to be seeking a current of air to bear them away. 
The following statement from Colonel Byers, formerly editor of the 
Eocky Mountain Xews, quoted in our First Beport, describes very vividly 
their mode of descending : 
Along towards noon on bright warm days they rise by circular flights, each seeming 
to act individually, to a considerable height, and then all sail away with tolerable 
regularity, in one general direction. If there is no wind, many of them continue 
183 Heuschrecken in Sud Russland, 41. 
184 In Bull, de Moscou, 1859, HI. 
ls^Der Aufenthaltauf Manila wahrendder Weltreiae derk.-k. Fregatte Xovara. in Verh. derk.-k. ZooL 
Bot. Ges. In Wien, xi, 1861, 275. 
186 Eeise in Egyp ten i Nubia, und Ost-Sudan, 2 ter. Tk. 242. Koppen. 
