94 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
MAK8HALL, LYON COUNTY, MINNESOTA. 
When flying high in the air, old locusts always go direct with the wind, but often 
beat up against the wind or at some angle of it by short flights near the surface. In 
1865, July 13, a large caravan passed across my claim, going west in the teeth of a 
strong northwest wind. The advance was two days ahead of the rear guard, and be- 
tween them there was at least a grasshopper to the square inch all the way and all the 
time. I do not think they went quite a mile an hour, and they eat all in their way 
and left the country as soon as the wind changed to the southeast. They had been 
hatched in the lower valley of the Redwood and eaten it clean, and started west for 
food, and pressed on as fast as the winds would admit ; and when they could not fly in 
the usual way they flow as far as they could aud then flew again, feeding as they went. 
The same swarm of locusts will fly in every direction, short flights. I have most satis- 
factory evidence that they have flown from the north part of Lyon County to Lake 
Benton — say 40 miles — in one day, and returned to the central part of Lyon County 
the third day, and, after remaining a day or two, gone east and not returned. 
They do not fly high in cloudy weather, but will go from one wheat-field to another. 
Do not fly high in hard winds, and never are seen flying except between 8 a. m. and 7 
p. m., generally from 10 a. m. to 4 p. m. If they fly nights no one knows it. If they 
go to roost they are in the same spot the next morning, and do not move until they 
breakfast and the dew is all off. They only float with the wind when flying high, and 
go just as fast as the wind blows. With a strong glass I can plainly see locusts and 
Cottonwood seeds flying together, and they keep the same rate of progress ; but the 
locusts will leave the Cottonwood seeds to the right and left and go below and above 
them, showing that they make use of their wings to keep up and gyrate in flying ; but I 
think they propel ahead none at all after they get high, but fly forward and upward 
very fast when rising from the ground to fly away or for short flights. 
As to how far they fly I have no reliable data nor much basis for an opinion. But 
"we can, at least, judge pretty certainly at the age of a locust ; for a locust breeds bnt 
once, never couples until it has flown, but does directly after, doing his courting flying, 
and does not live long after it lays its eggs. So we can judge by their age in what 
latitude they hatched, and by that give a good guess how far they have traveled. Now, 
those that came hero in 1673, June 17, began to couple as soon as they lit. They 
hatched and came to the winged state far south of this, and came here pretty rapidly. 
Last summer flights came here in August (I cannot fix date) and began to couple as 
soon as they alighted. We could trace them back by telegraph as far as Manitoba. 
I believe they came from Saskatchewan Valley and hatched after the middle of J une. 
I think they fly above the limits of human or telescopic vision in long journeys, and, it 
may be, day and night for a thousand miles. — [D. F. Weymouth. 
Mr. Weymouth evidently speaks of a movement on foot where he says 
"they went west in the teeth of a strong northwest wind." 
Mr. G. S. Coddington, of Dell Bapids, Minnehaha County, Dakota, in 
his letter of December 10, 1877, published in the appendix of our first 
report, gives the following description of a singular movement observed 
by him: 
The immense swarms, of which I had just kept in advance on the route from Red- 
wood Falls, came rolling over the country. The word " rolling " seems to express the 
appearance of the movement. The movement of the mass seemed like a great roller 
moving over the ground. They would drop and rise, make a curved flight, and drop 
again. 
We can understand this if we imagine an immense swarm moving 
along the ground by short nights, those behind flying over to the front 
and alighting, the next tier or portion, which would now be behind, mov- 
