off sowing till they see whether the locusts are likely to come that season, as is done by some disheartened men), now find that they can in a great measure cope with the enemy.

In their arduous labours they are aided by many allies-notably by one who does not often get credit for good qualities—namely, THE UNFRAGRANT SKUNK! This very unpopular neighbour has an especial weakness for locust's eggs, and a single skunk will, if undisturbed, clear a whole acre even of grass-land around his lair so that not one egg-sack shall escape him. As it is estimated that every bushel of eggs destroyed is equal to a hundred acres of corn saved, the skunk must assuredly take rank among the farmer's friends. Wolves, foxes, badgers, and various species of 'gophers' greedily devour the full-grown insect, as does also the domestic hog.

But, as concerns the eggs, their most vigorous assailants are generally insects of various sorts, especially a minute, six-legged, parasitic mite, distinguished as the scarlet silky mite (Trombidium sericeum). Wherever these admirable little creatures make their appearance, that particular hatching-ground may be considered wellnigh innocuous. They work in gangs of from five to fifty, attacking one cone at a time, and emptying each tiny egg of its contents. So the cones visited by these diligent egg-suckers contain only empty shells.

Another species of little red mite (Trombidium gryllaria) attacks the full-grown locust. So do various predaceous beetles. But the most cruel personal foes of the locust are a greenish fly (Tachina anonyma)—which lays her eggs in the body of the luckless hopper, where they presently develop into horrid maggots-and the hair-worms (Gordius aquaticus and G. varius), which have the same unpleasant propensity, and, moreover, are frightfully prolific. Dr. Leidy on one occasion observed a hair-worm of the latter species, which, being itself only nine inches in length, deposited a string of ova which measured ninety-one inches, and in which he estimated that there were upwards of six million eggs! A very pleasant lodger, truly!

Notwithstanding the labours of the scarlet mites, we have seen that a very fair number of locusts are hatched. So soon as they leave their tiny cradle, however, they are exposed to eager attacks by prairie-chickens, quails, blackbirds, partridges, and other insectivorous birds.

A farmer, writing from Omaha, pleads for the protection of such allies, just as the wise naturalists of Britain crave it for our own insect-destroying rooks and other birds. He tells how fortunate he esteems himself in having about fifty quails about his place. He states that so soon as the hoppers are hatched, while they are yet microscopic in size, they are vigorously attacked by the quails, each of which daily devours as many as would fill a bushel measure were

they allowed to grow up; and so diligently did they work that they effectually cleared his ground of all hoppers bred on the place.

In the face of such evidence as this, he calls attention to the wholesale destruction of birds by members of the sporting clubs established in every village, town, and city. Such birds as escape the sportsman's gun are trapped and snared by farmer's boys, so that the markets of St. Louis, Chicago, and New York are literally glutted with quails, prairie-chickens, and grouse. These, he argues, must be protected. He pleads that the North-Western States should pass laws prohibiting the killing of birds, and making it penal for railway companies to carry such to market. Whether his suggestion has been adopted I cannot say; but its wisdom has been abundantly proven by Professor Green of Kansas, who, on examining the crops of various birds, such as the red-eyed woodpecker, the yellow-billed cuckoo, the great-crested flycatcher, the cat-bird, the red-eyed vireo, and the crow-blackbird, found them each to contain young locusts; as did also the so-called graminivorous finches and buntings. Cranes, ducks, hawks, owls, and a great variety of small sparrow-like birds also eat locusts readily.

In this connection, it is very interesting to note that, while the sparrows which were introduced to New Zealand and Australia so utterly failed to fulfil the expectations of their importers, those which were sent to the United States in order to wage war against the noxious cankerworm, fulfilled their mission so thoroughly that in 1871 the New York Times bore characteristic testimony to their good work, remarking that 'THE ASTOUNDING FACT THAT THEY ALONE OF all PUBLIC SERVANTS OF THIS CITY HAVE FULFILLED THEIR CONTRACT, MAKES THEIR HISTORY NOT ONLY INTERESTING, BUT UNIQUE!'

The special foe which they were called upon to combat was a destructive grub, sometimes called the six-legged hunchback, but known also as the inch-worm or leaf-worm. The native birds positively declined to feed on this unpleasant-looking creature, so the omnivorous sparrow was suggested, and right well he did his work. His services were fully recognised by the State. Sparrow-houses were erected in New York, filled with artificial nests made of grass and twigs, lined with hair and feathers, as an inviting shelter for the strangers in the bitter frosts of the severe American winter, and the keepers of the great Central Park were supplied with a goodly store of cracked rice to be daily scattered for their benefit; while for their comfort in the stifling heats of summer, bits of wooden plank were set floating on the pools and tanks to facilitate their bathing!

Doubtless grateful for such good care, the sparrows have done their work in the States with right good will, and have trained up an innumerable host of descendants, all of whom labour ceaselessly to destroy the farmer's foes, and rid the land of the sore pest which had threatened to prove so serious. How efficient is their aid may be

inferred from the fact that a single pair of sparrows have been carefully watched for a whole day, and have been seen to return to their hungry nestlings, on an average, forty times in an hour, each time carrying a grub, which would have done its full share of damage to the crops had it been allowed to live, to say nothing of its probable increase.

Mr. Edward Wilson, the sparrow's friend, has told how below the nest of one pair of sparrows there were found the wings of no less than 1,400 cockchafers! Now, as we may safely assume that half the wings were those of females, and as each maternal cockchafer produces about forty mischievous grubs in the season, it follows that this pair of busy sparrows had spared the land from the devastation of no less than 28,000 cockchafers; and if we follow out the sum into the second and future years, the calculation becomes altogether startling, and makes it easier to understand how it is possible that in France the ravages of the cockchafer grub have, in certain years, been estimated at so vast a sum as 40,000,000 francs.

Foremost amongst the bird-foes of men's foes, rank the prairiechicken, or pinnated-grouse (Cupidonia cupido), and the sharp-tailed grouse (Pediacetes Columbianus). Dr. Elliott Coues, writing to the Chicago Field, assigns to the latter the foremost place as a locustdestroyer. He says, 'These birds yearly destroy millions of grasskoppers, and at certain seasons eat very little else.' He tells of having killed them in great numbers, continuously from June till October; and so long as locusts were to be found, the craws of these birds were invariably crammed with these insects. He also proved that the cock-of-the-plains (Centrocercus urophasianus), which is supposed to feed chiefly on wormwood, is a very large locust-consumer, as are also various hawks, particularly of the genus Buteo. On the strength of these observations Dr. Elliott pleads for the absolute, unqualified, and long-continued protection of grouse as the most effective of all the natural anti-grasshopper agencies.

Even the gulls are ready to aid in this good work, those of the Great Salt Lake not only capturing the winged grasshoppers, but eagerly devouring the nicely pickled locusts which, having fallen into its briny waters, have drifted to the shore.

Fish also are readily attracted by a locust bait, and well do the fishermen in the trout-streams of Middle Park know their value, for, as one writes,' With nearly every locust, I could catch a fine trout.'

Why should not this good bait be preserved, and extensively exported for the use of fishermen in other lands? Long ago it occurred to an enterprising Frenchman to make use of the African locust as an excellent substitute for the expensive pickled roe of Norway, so largely used as bait for the sardine fisheries on the coast of Mancha. He found that locusts cooked in salt water, dried in the sun, and ground, made a bait quite as attractive to the sardines as the

Norwegian roe. It was found to be unctuous, nutritive, and very much like the flesh of crawfish, which is the sardine's favourite bait. Moreover, it immediately sinks to the bottom of the water, which is another virtue. The new bait was prepared in various forms, and was enthusiastically received by the sardines, many of which, when captured, were proved to have swallowed the bait.

Why then should not the locusts of the States be thus utilised? The methods of preparation are very simple. The insects are either cooked and salted, and piled into solid cakes, or else they are thrown alive into brine, and then pressed and dried in the sun.

As yet, strangely little use has been made of the enormous quantity of locusts annually destroyed in America. In that land of plenty, this staple food of such multitudes of persons in Europe, Asia, and Africa, has hitherto been altogether despised. Possibly, now that the wild cattle of America-the bison, once so abundanthave been so ruthlessly exterminated, the lessons of famine may teach wasteful human beings to value the fragments that remain, and to find in the despised locusts a nutritious and not unpalatable diet. It is true that Burton's description of them, as suggestive of stale shrimps, is not very inviting, but many other travellers have adopted them as a very welcome addition to their daily fare, and have eaten them with much relish, having first prepared them by cleaning the stomach, pulling off the heads, wings, and prickly legs, boiling them in salt and water, and then drying them in the sun for several days. They are generally eaten hot, with salt and pepper, or with clarified butter and fried onions.

The curse of one man is the blessing of another, and to the inhabitants of arid steppes or sandy deserts-people who have no crops to lose a locust-shower is welcome as heaven-sent manna. But for our Anglo-Saxon brethren on the fertile plains of the Great Continent we can wish no better boon than deliverance from drought, locusts, and all manner of bugs!

C. F. GORDON CUMMING.

RELIGION AND THE STAGE.

Je sais bien que, pour réponse, ces messieurs tâchent d'insinuer que ce n'est point au théâtre à parler de ces matières; mais je leur demande, avec leur permission, sur quoi ils fondent cette belle maxime.-MOLIÈRE, Preface to the Tartuffe.

A RECENT production at a London theatre has obtained a greater success perhaps than it merits, because it has incidentally raised the question of how far it is lawful or expedient for a modern playwright to touch religious questions and to put modern English religious life upon the stage.

Upon any question of dramatic craftsmanship, literary skill, or originality of plot, a playwright will do well to abide by the wholesome rule that forbids an artist to speak of his own work or to question any verdict that may be passed upon it. It is true that this rule at times presses somewhat severely upon a dramatic author, inasmuch as, while all other artists are judged by their own performances, a playwright is judged partly by the performances of others, and is praised or blamed not merely for what he has done or misdone for himself, but for what the management, the actors, the scene-painters, and the carpenters have done or misdone for him. Thus Shakespeare himself would hardly escape severe condemnation as a sorry bungler in stagecraft, were he an unknown playwright and his masterpieces had now to be submitted to the public for the first time at an afternoon performance with stock scenery and slovenly stage-management.

The curiously divergent values and meanings which a public representation may attach to a play or to certain portions of a play from what the author attaches to them, or that different audiences may attach to the same play, or that the same spectator may attach to the same play seen under fresh conditions and with new actors, these are among the hundred risks inseparable from the playwright's calling. And it is useless-especially would it ill become one who has been unusually fortunate in the interpretation and discussion of his work to cavil at those conditions and limitations of his art which are at present unavoidable and irremediable. All success or failure that may be due to adequate and skilful, or inadequate and unskilful production and interpretation, all curious variances of critical and public judgment upon technical questions, are best met with the discreet silence of a quiet smile, and may be allowed to pass on without com