236 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
musicians, of their melodies, or of the methods by which they are 
produced. Indeed, some human ears are normally unable to 
perceive the exceedingly tenuous sounds produced by many of 
these insects. 
When the warm twilight falls in late August or September, 
hushing the noises of daylight, everyone becomes aware of insist- 
ent murmurs from thicket and copse. Scarcely less numerous in 
favorable localities, though less noticed owing to the greater 
variety of distractions, are those of the day-time, voices which 
are often submerged in the volume of other sound. In the fields, 
the sunny autumn days are enlivened less by the plaintive calls 
of southward-flying birds than by the constant chirping, buzz, 
and rattle of myriads of insignificant creatures filled for a brief 
period with the literal sunshine of life and making music their 
steadfast pursuit. 
Then, the rambler's steps are accompanied by the notes of 
humble little creatures into whose haunts he has unwittingly 
intruded; and if he is keen to learn the why and wherefore of 
Nature's ways, he discovers that the minor-keyed music of autumn 
days and nights is sounded on the miniature violins of Crickets, 
Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Locusts. For it is to this lowly 
type of life that we are indebted for the vocalization of the spirit 
of the dying year; an expression of joy to them, it may be, but to 
us a prophecy of the end. In poetry and in prose many passages 
attest the important part their music plays to sensitive minds in 
expressing the heyday of midsummer life and the undefinable 
melancholy of autumn. The influence of these sounds upon the 
human mind varies with the individual, with the season, and with 
the song. And the song of the same singer varies likewise. It 
may be filled with the throbbing intensity of summer, — a pas- 
sionate call of life and love at the height of activity of the insect, — 
or a feeble note of cheer to comrade mates and minstrels before 
passing into the oblivion of winter. The relation of these songs 
to human life lies more properly, however, in the field of the 
student of human psychology. It is our wish to learn how the 
sounds are produced and their significance in the life of the insect. 
Insects produce sound in a variety of ways. The motion of 
the wings causes whispering, rustling, buzzing, or humming 
sounds, varying largely with the speed of movement. This is 
