NOTATION OP INSECT MUSIC. 223 



nervures.* The drone of the dung beetle, the " Drowsy Dorr/' 

 which, in the still twilight of a summer's evening, 



" Come brushing by 



With buzzing wing " 



owes also its origin to friction, that of the wing-cases upon the 

 base of the wings. Loud hummers of the same order are the musk 

 beetle, the cock-chafer, and the beautiful green chafer of the 

 rose, which never fails, in alighting on the bosom of his favourite 

 flower, to salute her with a wing sonata of delighted homage. 



The tones of insects, as well as the songs of birds, have been 

 deemed worth the trouble of notation. Gardiner, in his 

 " Music of Nature," tells us that the gnat hums in the note A 

 on the second space ; the death-watch calls (as the owl hoots) 

 in B flat, and is answered in G ; the three notes of the cricket 

 are in B ; the buzz of a bee-hive in F ; that of the house-fly 

 F in the first space; the humble bee an octave lower; the 

 cock-chafer D below the line. 



Although in no case proceeding from the mouth, the sounds 

 we have been hitherto regarding as instrumental music are 

 no less to be considered as a veritable language, serving, in lieu 

 of voice, to communicate information and express passions, such 

 as fear, anger, pleasure, above all, love, that ruler of the 

 rest, which with insect no less than man may be justly deno- 

 minated the " Soul of Song/ 7 



There is a peculiar sound often heard issuing from a bee- 

 hive previous to its sending forth a swarm, a sharp, clear hum, 



* In Insect Miscellanies, p. 91. t Vignette. 



