Dec. 29, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
1025 
resemble the adults in general appearance, but 
have no wings. These grow gradually, molt sev¬ 
eral times, and become full-grown about mid¬ 
summer. 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 be¬ 
yond the punctures, or else the damaged canes 
are broken off during the winter. 
Fortunately for mankind, nature has developed 
along with the various species of destructive 
locusts a considerable number of animals that 
depend to a greater or less extent upon grass¬ 
hoppers for subsistence. Some of these are pre¬ 
daceous, others are parasitic, but all are bene¬ 
ficial in checking grasshopper increase. Perhaps 
the most good is done by those insects which prey 
upon grasshopper eggs, as the ’hoppers are then 
most easily destroyed. The common blister 
GRASSHOPPER OR LOCUST (MAGNIFIED). 
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 grasshoppers. 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 emer¬ 
ging as beetles. In addition to these blister 
beetles there are certain small red mites that de¬ 
vour 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. 
Clarence M. Weed. 
The Raven. 
New York City, Dec. 24.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The raven in this part of the country 
seems to be getting pretty rare. Some years ago 
a pair were observed in the woods of the Atlan¬ 
tic Highlands, but they soon disappeared and 
were probably shot. They exhibited an extreme 
shyness. Only in the very early morning did 
they venture forth from the woods to forage for 
food along the shore of the sea or the Shrews¬ 
bury River. On these excursions while one fed 
the other seemed to be constantly on guard. Ap¬ 
parently this vigilance did not avail them. At 
all events, they disappeared and no more of their 
kind have been observed there. 
This species is known scientifically as Corvus 
corax principalis. It is a very striking bird, con¬ 
siderably larger than the crow, being twenty-six 
or twenty-seven inches in length, with a wing 
spread exceeding a yard. Its sombre plumage, 
roughened at the neck, its formidable beak, and 
its “evil eye” give it a decidedly unprepossessing 
appearance. In fact, it has all the air of a 
thoroughbred robber and to one of an imaginative 
turn something worse. 
This interesting member of the family Corvidae 
was once common enough hereabouts. An old 
naturalist, Giraud-, speaks of often seeing it over 
Long Island; and prior to the coming of the white 
man to America it was probably almost as com¬ 
mon as the crow, for never was a bird better 
H \\ ■ 
ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST, 
a, b, young nymphs; c, fully developed nymph or pupa; 
d, adult. 
fitted to survive in the struggle for existence. 
Bold, sagacious, hardy, and with an omnivorous 
appetite the raven can hold its own in any field. 
Then it is a prolific breeder, laying from six to 
seven eggs, and it is certain that the Indian held 
it in sunerstitious awe and did not molest it. But 
with the coming of the white man it was doomed 
to extinction. Countless ages of accumulated 
aversions and prejudices broke upon it, so to 
speak. 
Perhaps—nay, certainly—there is no single bird 
so mixed up with the history of the old world 
as the raven. Nor is this difficult to understand. 
First, its appearance marked it for distinction; 
and second, its habits made it an object of cur¬ 
ious, or fearful interest. Wherever there was 
/ 
A WALKING STICK. 
From Nature Biographies. 
the prospect of a feast of dead men or animals 
there was the raven. And so keen was the bird’s 
instinct in this regard, that it got the reputation 
of possessing prophetic powers. Thus we read 
that the descent of the Scythians upon Greece 
was presaged by a raven. And, to be sure, it 
gave due notice of the Black Death. The croak- 
ings of the bird, which seem to have something 
direful about them, added to the terror which 
its appearance inspired. And every croak or 
series thereof had its special significance, which 
was learnedly interpreted by soothsayers. 
From being a prophet of general calamities it 
was an easy stage for the raven to become a 
prophet' of particular. Death was supposed to 
be its specialty. If a raven flew over a sick man’s 
house and croaked three times that man had bet¬ 
ter get ready for the other world. Says the poet 
Marlowe in “The Jew of Malta”: 
Like the sad presaging raven, that tolls 
The sick man’s passport in her hollow beak 
And, in the shadow of the silent night 
Does shake contagion from her sable wing. 
Macauley, the historian, gravely relates that a 
raven entered Cicero’s bedchamber on the day 
of his murder and pulled the clothes off the bed. 
Again we are told that before . “mighty Caesar” 
fell, “the bird of ill omen” croaked in the streets 
of Rome. History, in short, is full of references 
to the gruesome character of the raven. Can we 
wonder therefore that such a sentiment grew up 
in regard to it? Singularly enough it was re¬ 
served for an American poet to give most perfect 
expression to this—Edgar Allan Poe in his weird 
poem of “The Raven.” 
In view of all this it is not a little strange and 
anomalous to find a benevolent character attrib¬ 
uted to the raven, as we do in Genesis in the 
story of the preservation of Elijah in the wilder- 
nortiiern raven. 
ness. And Shakespeare in “Titus Andronicus,” 
has written; 
“Some say that ravens foster forlorn children.” 
How such an idea ever came to exist it were 
indeed hard to say. But this character of benevo¬ 
lence certainly never took root in popular be¬ 
lief, or at any rate it was never regarded but as 
quite exceptional, as if Satan might have some 
moments of repentance. 
The disappearance of the raven, then, from 
civilized haunts was inevitable. Prof. Newton 
tells us that it is only to be found in the wildest 
or loneliest parts of the British Isles and the day 
of its extinction there cannot be far distant. 
Here, of course, it will survive longer, having 
such vast areas of asylum. But by degrees these 
will grow fewer and more restricted, for the 
white man with his rifle is ever on the move. 
Still after no spot in the United States or lower 
Canada is free from his dominion the raven will 
have the great wilds of the north as a refuge. 
Indeed it ranges there now. Mr. Hanbury, a re¬ 
cent traveler, found it on the Arctic coast, and 
he says it winters there. A bird which can do 
that need not fear extinction at the hands of 
man. Frank Moonan. 
Hoofs of Deer Shed. 
Wananish, N. C., Dec. 4. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: What is the matter with our deer? In 
a recent camp hunt near here we killed eighteen; 
all of the grown ones had gone through some 
disease that caused the hoof to shed. In some 
cases the old hoof still telescoped on the new 
one. 
The deer were in rather better flesh than usual 
at this season of the year. 
I heard of some few finds of dead deer in the 
woods during the past summer, but evidently only 
a few died as they seemed fairly plentiful in our 
territory. We only found the skeleton of one 
which probably died from the disease. J. P. C. 
