— 125 



and it would seem that tliey not imly see with 

 tlieii- iihdsphiirosceut eyes but luuxr the footfalls. 

 Their well developed ears construeted like those 

 of the grasshoppers and similarly situated in a 

 cavity at either side of the hind body or abdomen 

 consist of a drum, attached ganglion and auditor}' 

 nerve : that the corresponding organ is the ear 

 of the grasshopper will occur on oliserving when 

 a male perched on a leaf stalk , proud as a 

 bantam , sends forth its echoing trill with a 

 crank-like fiddling of the hind legs , that have 

 a raised file on their inner surface that moves 

 across its coriaceous wings ; how the female then 

 remains couched expectantly on the warm grassy 

 bank with one leg lowered so as to uncover an 

 ear cavity in order to interpret the dizzy rustle 

 and suggestive refrain into a language of flowers : 

 and that she is perfect!}' congnizant of its import 

 is explained by the males who return an answer 

 in a round rattle. Yersin with the zest of the 

 conservatoire and dreamy moodiness of the bard 

 of Mantua found an alphabetical expression for 

 the varied intonation of the performers on the 

 craggy slopes of the Alps and set their scores 

 to music and anyone whose ear is less acute will 

 have noticed that our common English wayside 

 performer, Steuobothrus biguttuliis, known as 

 the variable grasshopper from the variety of dot 

 and dash depicted on its wings, emits exelaima- 

 tions of "Wheeh- Wheeh 1 interrupted with an inter- 

 rogative Wirr-AVirr ! that the Small Green Grass- 

 hopper, Steuobothrus pratoriim , raises cries of 

 Thiph-Thiph ! and the Red Legged Grassbo^Dper, 

 Stenobothrus ruflpes, calls Retetee ! in the corn- 

 fields of Spain there is a kind hard to distinguish 

 that enunciates whir-whirhewee ! the pairing note 

 of the minute (Jomphocerus guttatus omnipresent 

 on the bare chalk downs of Surrey is Wuf- Wuf ! 

 Other grasshoppers make a rattle when they leap 

 as the red-winged Pachytylus stridulosus common 

 in the woods of Switzerland , the yellow-winged 

 Oedipoda snlphui'aea of Canada and the slender 

 winged Leptoteniis gracilis of the hills of Judea : 

 it is to this I imagine that the prophet Joel 

 alludes when he says : 'Like the noise of chariots 

 on the tops of mountains shall they leap'. This 

 grasshopper melody is very characteristic of our 

 temporate climate warmed by the Gulf Stream, 

 in the tropics where the matutinal warble of 

 birds is replaced by barn door screams and 

 Zoological Garden screaks, the shrill of the Leaf 

 Crickets that have their wings transformed into 

 cymbals by means of a talc spot and sounding 

 file , whose uproar has been compared to the 

 'sound of chariots of many horses running to 

 battle', and whose ears are on their fore legs, 

 resounds at night : and at midday the bag-pipe 

 clatter and drone of the cicadae emitted from a 

 hooped bladder slung on either side , whose ears 

 are situated as in the moths and grasshopper but 



beneath the abdomen and covered by flaps, is 

 evoked by the sun that rules the da}'. 



If the Noctuina have ears it is comprehensible 

 that they have also a language of their own. 

 BIr. d. J. Fountain lately observed in the Country 

 Side that when crossing over the meadow grass 

 at Ponder's End near Birmingham after night- 

 fall he was surprised by a clicking sound , and 

 suddenly found himself .surrounded by the musta- 

 chioed males of Heliophobiis popularis, that 

 flew low over the grass, and the newly emerged 

 Feathered Gothic that was sounding the timbrel 

 for the gathering he discovered holding its wings 

 raised over its back. On examination I can only 

 imagine these notes arose fi'om the crumpling of 

 the fore wings , at the base of which there is a 

 pucker, by friction on the hinder ; and probably 

 the cry of Ualias prasiiiaiia which claims affinity 

 with the P3-ralidina , and whose wings have a 

 similar pucker is similarly produced, it is certain 

 the callosity beneath the flap of the fore wings 

 when they close catches on the side piece of the 

 abdomen with quite an audible click , but what 

 is remarkable the Silver Lines emits its bat like 

 cries on the wing. Mr. Headworth says in the 

 fifth volume of Newman's Entomologist : 'On the 

 fourth of June while collecting in a wood', as 

 would seem at Gateshead in Durham , 'I was 

 rather startled about dusk by the sudden ap- 

 pearance of a couple of insects whirling franti- 

 cally around each other , close above my head, 

 and both uttering a shrill and singular noise at 

 quick intervals that much resembled the sound 

 made by birds which we sometimes see chasing 

 each other. By a fortunate stroke of the net I 

 secured one of them when continued to utter its 

 peciiliar note until I boxed it. It proved to be 

 a male specimen of Halias prasiuaua'. The Re- 

 verend ]\Ir. Morris says in his British Moths : 

 ■I was out hunting one evening, very early, be- 

 fore actual dusk, on a rising ground near Stoke 

 Court where I saw many of these moths flying 

 up and down very fast and hard to catch near 

 or above the top of an old fashioned hedge on 

 the side of a wide and grassy lane and I could 

 not help being struck by the curious stridulous 

 sound they made as they flew.' Dr. Buchanan 

 White who on the 28 of May heard a male Silver 

 Lines squeaking as it flew around a small oak in 

 Perthshire and later in the evening another doing 

 the same ; found a good imitation could be made 

 by rubbing a knitting needle on the blade of a 

 clasp knife. Lastly I recall mj-self in the be- 

 ginning of June , after the spring rain at St. 

 Catherine's Ferry in Argyleshire, being suddenly 

 arrested in a plantation of oak saplings by a 

 twittering in the air ; when on looking up I saw 

 a male and female Silver Lines come fluttering 

 down and toying just in front of me. According 

 to a label once existing in the national collection 



