62 NATURE STUDY. 



we have aii}- proof that the aborigines had knowledge of 

 the excellences of hash. 



A study of the rude implements used by the Indians, 

 aside from the interest it excites in the comparison of cu- 

 rious forms, is instructive when we realize that but a short 

 time ago the stone age, which disappeared long since in 

 Europe, still lingered on this continent. 



Voices of the Night. 



BY EDWARD J. BURXHAM. 



The familiar sounds of evening time in the late summer 

 and early fall have a charm peculiarly their own. Some 

 of them are sure to be recogaized year after year, even by 

 those who know little of the creatures that produce them, 

 while ever and anon some half-forgotten note recalls mem- 

 ories and associations of childhood. 



All the summer the tiny denizens of the garden, field 

 and roadside have been feeding and growing, storing up 

 vitality to be transmitted to the generation that is to fol- 

 low ; and at length, when maturity and responsibility have 

 come, the night air thrills with their stridulation. 



The most ardent entomologist must despair of learning 

 all the notes and calling each musician by his name ; but 

 it is comparatively easy for any one to become familiar 

 with at least a few of them, recognizing the same notes 

 year after year, until he may truthfull}- say to some crick- 

 et or grasshopper that he has heard the father, grand- 

 father and a long line of ancestors make the same plaint 

 or sing the same song. 



There is one cricket, abundant in New England, that, 

 because of his melancholy note, may be called the pessi- 

 mist of the stridulating insect tribe. He sings as if sing- 

 ing were vanity and vexation of spirit — as if all life were 



