[G] REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
here, and the birds, if as plenty as they should be, will take care that the infliction be 
not permanent. 
Question 24. By the young, the tender blades of wheat; by the old, corn; and when 
the oats are about ripe they seem to relish or prefer to cut off kernels of oats between 
the kernel and the straw. 
Question 25. Broom-corn and sugar-cane. 
Question 2G. Never injured them worth mentioning. 
Question 28. Scarcely any. 
Question 21). From 5 to 10 per cent. 
Question 30. They eat and eat during the daytime, and in 18G7 would eat off a strip 
of wheat, and, if grown again, return to the original place. During rainy days they 
lie still and do not eat; during cold they seek shelter behind clods and rubbish; they 
never move at night unless disturbed. 
Question 31. From 5 to 20 miles an hour. 
C. P. EISELEY. 
Pleasant Hill, Saline County, May 21, 1877. 
Question 1 a. Worth ; light. 
Question 1 6. Clear and dry. 
Question 1 c. As far as the eye could reach, and dense enough to partially obscure 
the sun. 
Question 2. Kept coming unci going from a. in. to 2 p. m. 
Question 2 a. Northerly and light. 
Question 2 b. Warm and dry. 
Question He. Southeast; density and extent moderate. 
Question 3. None the present year. 
Question 4. May 10, 1*77. Came out in vast quantities. 
Question 5. About the same time in 1855; not as numerous. None in 1676. 
Question 0. About half ; cause, blowing off of covering by wind and exposure to the 
elements. 
Question 7. On naked, hard, dry ground, such as well-fed pastures, old roads, &c. 
Question 8. Dryest and hardest ground. 
Question 9. In 1875 got wings about June 1. 
Question 10. About June 10. 
Question 11. Nothing yet this year. 
Question 15. I think they have no given direction of travel. Their line of march 
depends on the surface of the ground and proximity of crops. 
Question 16. There has been no means tried by us yet except burning. Several 
farmers have scattered straw along the edge of their fields. The young 'hoppers col- 
lect in the straw in great quantities. Some farmers claim to have destroyed five or 
six bushels at one burning. 
Question 17. Nothing of that kind has yet been attempted. 
Question 18. We have as yet nothing of the kind. 
Question 19. We had no locusts at all in the spring of 1876. In the fall they came 
in on us from the northwest. 
Question 20. In 1874 they came in from the northwest about August 10; the season 
was exceedingly hot and dry, thermometer reaching 114° in the shade. The locusts 
were very ravenous, eating everything before them, but deposited eggs sparingly. 
Last fall they ate but little, but deposited eggs in enormous quantities in many places, 
as many as three hundred to the square inch. 
Question 21. All our domestic fowls eat them in vast quantities ; our little chickens 
just hatched live on the young ones without other food. All wild birds prey upon 
them, especially the prairie-chickens and quails. It is believed that a prairie-chicken 
eats one pint per day ; quails about one-half that quantity. The bird which has done 
us the best service is a blackbird with a yellowish-white head and wings; never no- 
ticed it here until this season. They came in great quantities, probably a thousand 
in a flock; they marched over the field like a band of soldiers, cleaning the ground 
clean where it was actually black with 'hoppers ; on a pasture field of about eighteen 
acres they destroyed about five bushels a day. If these birds remain with us, we 
will have no full-fledged 'hoppers this year, or very few at most. 
Question 22. Have none. 
Question 23. I heard a great deal about eggs hatching in the fall, but have no evi- 
dence that any did. 
Question 24. They take everything but sorghum and pumpkin vines, and have a 
particular regard for tobacco and onions. 
Question 26. Have never injured the native grasses as far as I know. Are particu- 
larly destructive to timothy, but don't seem to relish blue-grass. We have not enough 
clover in this county to give an estimate. 
Question 27. I know no quadrupeds or reptiles (except snakes) that eat them. 
Question 28. Nothing of the kind has been done in this section of the country. 
