Generation of Sounds by Canadian Insects. 127 



regulated Canadian hearth in the evening or twilight, and although 

 it is said not to be so soft as the song of the mole cricket, which I 

 have never met with in Canada, it is by no means disagreeable, 

 although I must confess it is sometimes rather harsh Opinion 

 varies on the " vulgarly called song of these animals/' for I find 

 Milne Edwards, of whom I had expected better things, calls it a 

 sharp and disagreeable sound, which explains the origin of their 

 vulgar name of cri-cri. The author of the " Backwoods of Ca- 

 nada," is also evidently no admirer of the Gryllus, for she says — 

 " The very crickets, that used to distract us with their chirping 

 from morning till night, have forsaken their old haunts." But this 

 is excusable, for a sad inroad was made by these iusects into the fair 

 author's clothes and woollens. To study the habits and song of the 

 Canadian crickeu, a good plan would be to keep a number in 

 cages, as practised by the Spanish peasantry, who delight in its 

 querulous chirping.* Among many people the chirp of the do- 

 mestic cricket is considered a good omen, and its absence from a 

 French Canadian hearth produces some anxiety. Although not 

 influenced by anything of this kind, I do entertain a partiality for 

 the cricket's chirp, which I have been accustomed to hear with 

 satisfaction from childhood. 



All the known species of the Mantis are proper to America, 

 but by the species of Phasma f which I have captured on the slopes 

 and base of the Montreal mountain, I have not noticed that any 

 sound was produced, notwithstanding that some species, as the 

 Praying Mantis, are said " to carol forth a fine canticle." 



I have observed that many beetles, particularly the large drab 

 with long antennas (Monohammus), emitted a distinct but slight 

 sharp sound, which is attributed to the friction of the peduncle 

 of the base of the abdomen against the inner recess of the 

 thorax, when they alternately enter and withdraw it. The 

 rubbing of different parts of their dense integument against each 

 other, is, however, the general explanation of these sounds in 

 beetles. This may be the case in many of them, but I think there 

 are, in some, true respiratory sounds, that is to say, while at rest 

 sounds are emitted from some of the spiracles which answer the 



* My readers will doubless remember the quarrel between two boys 

 respecting a cage full of crickets, which gave Don Quixote so much 

 annoyance, but which was ended by the worthy squire making a purchase 

 of the chirping brood for four farthings. 



(f Spectrum femoratum ? — Eds.) 



