FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 29, 1906. 
49 6 
POSES FOR HIS PICTURE. 
Photo by Dr. S. F. Way. 
easily make out the important points in the ex¬ 
ternal anatomy of a cricket. The large, nearly 
square head bears on each upper front corner 
a good-sized compound eye. Between these are 
the small simple eyes, appearing as minute, 
white, circular spots against the dark background 
of the head. Directly in front of each eye to¬ 
ward the median line arises one of the long, 
slender, tapering antennae, having a large basal 
joint, with the rest of the joints appearing under 
a lense as short, slightly swollen cylinders. The 
mouth parts are similar to those of the grass¬ 
hopper, as is the rest of the body in much of its 
general structure. 
The small yellowish eggs of the crickets are 
deposited in masses in the soil about half an 
inch below the surface. They are laid in autumn 
and hatched the following spring into little 
crickets that resemble the adults in general ap¬ 
pearance, but have no wings. These grow grad¬ 
ually, molt several times and become full grown 
about midsummer. They feed on grasses, clover 
and a great variety of vegetable matter. 
The tree crickets differ strikingly from the 
black crickets, being white or nearly so. These 
deposit their eggs in longitudinal rows in green 
canes. The eggs hatch early in summer into 
young crickets bearing a general resemblance 
to the adults, though without wings. They 
feed upon plant-lice and other insects during 
their entire existence, being consequently in this 
way friends rather than foes of the fruit grower. 
By'the latter part of summer they become fully 
grown. They are then of a pale, whitish-green 
color, about four-fifths of an inch long. The 
female cricket deposits her eggs in the tender, 
growing canes of raspberries, blackberries, and 
grapes, and the twigs of maple, willow, catalpa, 
and several other species of trees. The injury 
thus done often causes the raspberries to die 
beyond the punctures, or else the damaged canes 
are broken off during the winter. 
Fortunately for mankind, nature has de¬ 
veloped along with the various species of de¬ 
structive locusts and their allies a considerable 
number of animals that depend to a greater or 
less extent upon grasshoppers for subsistence. 
Some of these are predaceous, others are para¬ 
sitic, but all are beneficial in checking grass¬ 
hopper increase. Perhaps the most good is done 
by those insects which prey upon grasshopper 
eggs, as the hoppers are then most easily de¬ 
stroyed. The common blister-beetles are among 
the most prominent of these egg-feeding species. 
The females of these beetles deposit their small 
eggs in masses of a hundred or more in the soil 
just below the surface. In about ten days the 
eggs hatch into curious little larvae that burrow 
through the earth in search of the eggs of grass¬ 
hoppers. A large proportion of them probably 
perish because they find no eggs to feed upon, 
but those that are successful go through a 
strange series of changes before finally going 
into the pupa state and later emerging as 
beetles. In addition to these blister-beetles, 
there are certain small red mites that devour 
grasshopper eggs. 
The members of this order also have many 
enemies to contend with among the birds and 
other vertebrates. They form an important item 
in the food of a great variety of birds, and 
are freely eaten by frogs, toads and other 
animals. 
An Elk Freak. 
Yellowstone National Park.- —Editor Forest 
and Stream: I send two remarkable photographs 
taken by Dr. S. F. Way, of Livingstone, Mon¬ 
tana, in the park, in August. 
Dr. Way, his wife and brother and sister-in- 
law were taking a camping trip through the 
park. While they were driving along the road, 
between the canon and outlet, close to the Yel¬ 
lowstone River, a spike elk was noticed; the 
team was stopped and for a joke (not expect¬ 
ing the elk to come) Mrs. Way called it up, 
offering it some of the chocolate creams which 
she was eating. The elk came slowly; but came 
and smelt, then tasted the cream; and liking it 
ate it. At this the Doctor took his camera, and 
got out of the wagon to take a picture. The elk 
went on behind the wagon and watched the Doc¬ 
tor, as you see. Then on having another choco¬ 
late cream offered, it reached up as the picture 
shows with its mouth beside Mrs. Way’s face. 
The question is, is this a wild elk, or where did 
it come from? Yanceys is the nearest place where 
there has been a tame elk, and that one is there 
yet. That is over thirty miles away. There are 
hundreds of elk in Hayden Valley close to 
where the picture is taken, but they are usually 
wilder than this one is. I am inclined to think 
this chap has been handled some when a calf 
by some one many miles away, and that it has 
not forgotten what sweets are. It’s only a year¬ 
ling, and so not old enough to forget what sugar 
tastes like; or it is a very inquisitive and ven¬ 
turesome spike. I can’t think that it is, strictly 
speaking, a wild elk. T. E. Hofer. 
a walking stick. 
From “Nature Biographies.” Copyright by Doubleday, 
Page & Co. 
FOND OF CREAMS. 
Photo by Dr. S. F. Way. 
A Plan of Forest Preservation. 
From the American Lumberman. 
Saginaw, Mich.—W. B. Mershon, whose 
varied manufacturing enterprises make him one 
of the most influential men in the State, in. dis¬ 
cussing the white pine and forest condition re¬ 
cently, said: 
I have just returned from the last fishing trip 
of the season. I was up on the northeastern part 
of the lower peninsula and I could not help but 
comment to the gentlemen with me on the fear¬ 
ful waste of the forests. It seems cruel to see 
devastation of these wild woodlands. The forest 
waste has been and is to-day tremendous. In 
one place we would find the ground covered with 
the blackened and decaying trunks of these mon- 
archs of the forest, where a windstorm had 
blown them down and forest fires had taken 
hold and the ruin was complete. In other places 
we saw the remnants of rollway after rollway 
where forest fires had burned the logs after they 
had been cut and rolled up to await the logging 
road to carry them to the mill. All of these 
things are familiar to the lumberman, but I had 
thought that the .small growths of jack pine and 
scattering Norway, that had stood so long on the 
banks of this trout stream, would be allowed to 
remain undisturbed and unmolested and add to 
the beauty of the winding stream. But I was 
undeceived this time, for two or three little por¬ 
table mills were running, or are being erected, 
camps were being built among this small stuff 
and the trout stream, instead of being undisturbed 
as I had fancied it would be after the logging 
days were over, was again awakened to the 
activity of lumbering. 
If the State would take charge of all these 
cutover lands that are not good for agricultural 
purposes (and a large percentage of them are 
not good for the farmers), protect them from 
fire, patrol them and protect the young forest 
growth', probably you and I would not see them 
marketable timber lands, but we would live to 
see the beautiful green growth, and our children’s 
children would know them as commercial forests— 
forests that could be perpetually maintained. An in¬ 
dividual cannot well do this, for should he at¬ 
tempt to keep a piece of timber land unmolested 
he will be taxed to death for so doing. Make 
our tax laws so they encourage the growth of 
trees, not the destruction of them, and let the 
Government take over the large tracts and again 
we will have forests. 
