INSECT VAllIETY. 159 



Augustj and September, its ravenous flocks silently steal like anned 

 warriors. Their music is properly nocturnal, and is thus extem- 

 jwrised. The male at about 8 p.m., as the marish mist rises in the 

 meadows, gains the summit of a leafy potato-stalk, or crawls 

 up the neighbouring- hedgerow or low oak-bush, and hanging- 

 there, head downwards, stretches out his fore-legs presenting 

 his auditory organs. He then, depressing the locking pro- 

 thorax, unhooks with a click his elytra, and takes part in an 

 upspringing dithyrambic " Whitt ! whitt ! whitt \" or " Zic ! zic! 

 zic ! " if your ear be classic, resembling the spurts of a knife- 

 grinder, that subside ever and anon, and gather in a dull vitreous 

 resonance (Plate III., Fig. 3). If approached stealthily by a 

 female, he ceases a moment, and bestows an antennal caress. 

 This evening concert terminates about 11. During dull weather, 

 the hedge-encamping outposts of the drove continue their dizzy 

 ring during the day, or fling momentary responses to passing 

 vehicles. The ordinary musical snatches, lasting about four 

 minutes, with chirp-broken pauses of four seconds or longer, are 

 higher pitched than those of the Dectlci, and the auditory 

 organs that receive them appear more acute, for while the green 

 minstrel in captivity becomes vocal wuth the hissing kettle or 

 domestic knife-cleaning, the Wart-biter responds to jingling 

 harness ; and the reason of this is, the file of the second is long 

 and coarse, harmonious with the sunlight, that of our nocturnal 

 species broad and fine ; and for this reason, crepitating together 

 in an apartment, the two extemporise pleasant j^art-playing of 

 the Christy-Minstrel order. The females are attracted by the 

 music, and approach, or even fly to, their males in captivity. 

 The lima carries about ninety-three dentations, of which only 

 some thirty-two are effective. The chirping of Locnda caudata, 

 a species of Eastern Eux'ope, smaller and more graceful in 

 appearance, is described as shriller and weaker. 



The plaintive cloth-snipping " Sprink ! sjjrink ! " of the 

 Cinereous Cricket [Thamnotrlzon ciwerews, Linn.), commencing in 

 slant sunlight among lank sunburnt grass, beneath bushes where 

 it is protected by its umber tints, greets the mild autumnal nights 

 from September to November. This scintillating madrigal, when 

 the insect is unexcited, presents a distinctly-repeated note {8e !) 

 with pauses recurring about every five seconds, for the intervals 



