66 



the 



Davis describes the note of this species as a " beat, beat, pulsating sound." Riley says 

 chirp " is intermittent, resembling a shrill ' reteat, re-teat, re-teat ' with a slight 



^, '>'^'^j ^j ''^j '^j /j /j f'j '^j '>j ^^ ^j ^^ ^A/j '^j ^j "^j '^j ^j 



-0 — e — — * — * — — 0'\-0 — — — — -^ \-0- 



t^ i^ ^ ^ ^ !J ^ ^1^ ^ C^ i:^ ^^ ^ ^ 



Fig. 41. Note of CEcanthus niveus by night. 



cause between each." McNeill calls it " the well-known trrr ree, trrr-ree, repeated with- 

 out variation or pause sixty or seventy times a minute," or as he says in another place 

 " f.r-r — r-e-e, t-r-r — r-e-e, repeated. . . .about seventy times in a minute," and adds : 



^'■i.n the vicinity of Davenport, Iowa, this song is heard as early as the twenty-third 

 of July and it cuntinues until the persistent little songsters are killed by the heavy frosts 

 of the late fall. Ihis song is heard only at night and occasionally on cloudy days, but in the 

 latter case it is only an isolated song and never the full chorus of the night song produced 

 by many wings whose vibration in exact unison produces that characteristic 'rhythmic 

 beat' — as Burroughs has happily phrased it. It is this efiect of many united songs that 

 has lead the same author to speak of 'purring' crickets. Thoreau calls it the 'slumbrous 

 breathing' and the 'intenser dream' of crickets, but Hawthorne has given it a more 

 spiritual interpretation than either Burroughs or Thoreau. He describes it as an 'audible 

 stillness,' and declares if ' moonlight could be heard, it would sound like that.' " 



Fitch writesof this insect in New York as follows: "In the southern part of our State 

 the song of the flower cricket begins to be heard as early as the first of August, but it is a 

 week later before it commences in the vicinity of Albany, and later still in the more northern 

 parts of thr State. Perched among the thick foliage of a grape vine or other shrubbery, 

 some feet up from the ground, and as already stated, remaining in the same spot day 

 after day, its song begins soon after sunset and before the duskiness of twilight arrives. 

 It is distinctly heard at a distance of several rods, and the songster is always farther off 

 than is supposed. Though dozens of other crickets and katydids are shrilling on every 

 side at the same time, the peculiar note of this cricket is at once distinguished from all the 

 rest, consisting of repetitions of a single syllable, slowly uttered, in a monotonous, melan- 

 choly tone, with a slight pause between. The children regard the cricket as no votary 

 of the temperance cause ;^they understand its song to consist of the words treat — treat — 

 treM — treat, which words, slowly uttered, do so closely resemble its notes that they will 

 at once recall them to the I'ecollection of almost every reader. And the song is thus 

 continued without the slightest variation and without any cessation, I think, the whole 

 night through. I, however, have sometimes heard it at the first commencement of its 

 evening serenade uttering three syllables resembling the words treat, treat, tico ; treat, 

 treat, tioo — as though the songster was supplicating a libation for his voiceless mate as 

 well as himself — a longer pause following each third note. This prelude is probably 

 performed in limbering or otherwise adjusting his organs, preparatory to performing the 

 reerular carol, which is struck into in a few moments." 



CEcanthus fasciatus Fitch. Of this species McNeill says : "The song is a high trill 

 continuing usually for several minutes with the intervals between the trills of very 

 irregular length. It sings all day as well as all night, apparently in th - bright sunshine 

 as well as on cloudy days and in the dusk of evening." Davis calls the song "a long and 

 comparatively loud, continuous whirr often lasting several minutes." My notes, which 

 probably refer to this species, make the chirp to be at a somewhat lower pitch than 

 that given by me for the preceding species, namely, at the third B above middle 0, and the 

 song itself is described as more rapid and vigorous. See also the rotes under (E. niveus. 



