680 ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 
eiently attacked. The female deposits a mass of eggs cemented together 
with a mucous substance, in a slightly curved hole which she makes in 
the ground within an inch of the surface. This operation is probably 
repeated until several egg-clusters are deposited. Major Bowlby esti¬ 
mates the number of eggs laid by each female at 90. 
The efficient prosecution of Major Bowlby’s plans for collecting 
the eggs must help greatly to ameliorate the plague. I would, how¬ 
ever, venture to submit that, as the eggs are destroyed by exposure to 
the sun, the surface of the ground should be broken up, wherever it is 
practicable, by harrowing or shallow ploughing. The eggs will thus be 
exposed to the birds that feed on them, and those that escape being con¬ 
sumed will have their vitality destroyed by being completely desiccated. 
Unless some systematic method of turning up the whole surface of the 
earth is adopted by the collectors, this would be a more effective way of 
securing the complete destruction of a season’s eggs. 
When the eggs are hatched, which from Major Bowlby’s report 
appears to be early in March, steps must be tak^n to trap the young 
insects. The method invented by Mr. Mattei, and adopted by Major 
Bowlby, appears unnecessarily complicated. If, instead of digging the 
pits or trenches for catching the locusts, in the direction of the line 
of their progress, they were dug at right angles to it, there would be 
no need to erect the oil-cloth traps to arrest their progress, and drive 
them into pits. The young locusts in their progress would fall into the 
pits, and perish at the bottom. The pits or ditches should be two feet 
wide and two feet deep, with perpendicular sides. No zinc covering 
is employed for such ditches in America. The use of the oil-cloth screen 
and the zinc cover may be necessary where the ditches cannot be dug 
to a suitable depth. 
Great benefit has been secured in America by drawing light metal 
pans over the fields, in which the wingless insects are caught. * A good 
and cheap pan is made of ordinary sheet-iron, eight feet long, eleven 
inches wide at the bottom, and turned up a foot high at the back and an 
inch high at the front. A runner at each end, extending some distance 
behind, and a cord attached to each front corner, complete the pan, at a 
small cost. It is easily pulled by two boys ; and by running several 
together in a row, one boy to each outer rope, and one to each contiguous 
pair, the, best work is performed with the least labour.’ The 
bottom of the pan is covered with kerosene, or some kerosene is floated 
on the surface of a little water placed in the bottom. The kerosene is 
speedily fatal to the locust. 
Much has been done in the Western United States to cope with the 
locust, where it is often very destructive to the crops. Dr. Riley, in the 
‘ Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Missouri Entomological Reports,’ and in 
his separate work on the ‘Locust Plague in the United States’ (1877), 
has recorded the experiences of the locust, and the various efforts which 
have been made to destroy it. Copies of these publications should be in 
the hands of Major Bowlby ; he might find some of the plans described 
by Dr. Riley fitted for the special conditions which exist in Cyprus. 
The services of the natural enemies of the locust should not be under¬ 
valued ; and especially should the increase of insectivorous birds be 
encouraged. Amongst the indigenous birds of Cyprus, there are a con¬ 
siderable number that should be serviceable in this direction, and some 
of them, like Glareola pratincola , the locust is the favourite food. 
Pigeons, common fowls, and pigs greedily devour the locust. 
William Carruthers.” 
