INSECT MUSICIANS, THEIR MUSIC, AND THEIR 

 INSTRUMENTS 



By R. E. Snodgbass 

 Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture 



THE SEASON'S PROGRAM 



There is something peculiarly quiet about the evenings of spring 

 and early summer in any country place sufficiently removed from 

 the highways of human traffic, and from frog ponds. Robins may 

 be warbling fragments of their song, or more commonly uttering 

 that loud clatter with which they accompany their short flights from 

 place to place, a song sparrow in the distance sings his bedtime 

 melodies, a catbird is mewing from the hedge, a thrasher practices 

 a few of his borrowed notes, a nighthawk makes a sudden swoop 

 from overhead. As the shadows deepen, however, and the line of dis- 

 tant trees fades against the sobering sky, bird voices cease and 

 the darkness brings silence, silence broken only at times by the 

 song of some irrepressible mocker that continues his effervescence 

 to uncertain hours, by the hoot of an owl, or by that long trill of 

 the chipping sparrow which occasionally, in moonlight, rises at dead 

 of night from somewhere in the fantastic, hazy distance. 



But, on one of those first warm evenings toward the end of May, 

 when the air is motionless though not yet sultry in southern Mary- 

 land, as the sun's fiery tints on the fleecy lining of sky give way to 

 the paler tones of moonlight, there comes from somewhere on the 

 lawn the first heralding of that troupe of insect choristers that later 

 will make the night air ring from dusk to dawn with the strident 

 music of their serenades. The announcement is a cheerful chirp, 

 chirp, chirp, strong and clear but vibratory, the unmistakable notes 

 of Gryllus, the common black cricket. These early arrivals belong 

 to a group just now maturing that hatched the preceeding summer 

 and wintered in a half-grown stage. For a month or more their 

 vigorous chirps are heard in town and country, and then again there 

 is silence, an interlude before the regular concert begins. 



The season advances, the hot nights of July arrive, thunder- 

 storms come and go, each leaving in its wake that oppressive evening 



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