MORSE: ORTHOFFERA OF NEW ENGLAND. 459 
tint being either a dull rusty, yellowish, or smoky brown, with 
markings of fuscous or black. In life a grayer tone prevails than 
is shown by cabinet specimens. 
Unobtrusive as a clod of the earth itself, there is nothing spec- 
tacular about either the person or career of the Dusky, or Dingy 
Locust. Tinted like the 
soil, a lump of animated 
dust, this plebeian creature 
spends its humble life liter- 
ally next to the ground in 
weedv fields, borders of ^ „„ ^ , , 
" Fig. 83. — Dusky Locust, Eneoplolophus tordxdxu. 
tilled lands, and waste Male. (After LuKger.) 
spots not too densely 
clothed with vegetation. Here it disports itself in numbers in 
late summer and autumn, an unnoticed element in the hordes of 
Grasshoppers that characterize the season. 
Dull-colored as it is, however, it is not unattractive in its modest 
dress of brown or gray marked with velvety black, a garb which 
renders it nearly invisible to the keen-eyed quail and meadowlark, 
ever on the alert for juicy morsels, and even to the fox himself, who 
does not disdain Grasshoppers in the absence of larger game. 
And it is often abundant in its haunts simply by reason of its 
obscurity. 
In the warmth of mid-day it is active, flying freely though not 
far, rarely more than a rod or two, and the dull rattling and buzz- 
ing of its wings and those of its comrades form an almost incessant 
accompaniment to the footsteps of the stroller in the fields on 
sunny days. 
Years ago I recorded (Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc, vol. 4, p. 19, 1896) 
two modes of stridulation practiced by it while on the ground, in 
which the hind femora were the chief instruments employed; 
but the noise produced at this time is so very faint as to be 
scarcely noticeable unless the performer is directly under one's 
eye and ear. 
Blatchley speaks of its note in flight as "a harsh droning or 
buzzing sound, somewhat resembling that of a bumblebee, but 
louder. It is begun after the insect has risen three or four feet 
above the ground, and is continued until it begins to descend, 
being kept up continuously while it is flying horizontally. The 
