SOUNDS FROM ANIMATE NATURE. 263 



notes. The common green grasshopper, that during the 

 months of August and September fills the whole atmos- 

 phere with its din, abides chiefly in the lowland meadows 

 which are covered with the native grasses. This grass- 

 hopper modulates its notes like the cackling of a hen, 

 uttering several chirps in rapid succession and following 

 them with a loud spinning sound that seems to be the 

 conclusion of the strain. These notes are continued in- 

 cessantly, from the time when the sun is high enough to 

 have dried the dews until dewfall in the evening. The 

 performers are delighted with the sunshine, and sing but 

 little on cloudy days, even when the air is dry and warm. 



SONG OP THE DIURNAL GREEN GRASSHOPPER. 



There is another grasshopper with short wings that 

 makes a kind of grating sound difficult to be heard, by 

 scraping its legs, that serve for bows, upon its sides, that 

 represent as it were the strings of a viol. If we go into 

 the whortleberry pastures we hear still another species, 

 that makes a continued trilling like the note of a hair- 

 bird. In some places this species sings very loudly, and 

 continues half a minute or more without rest. Its notes 

 are not so agreeable as those which are more rapidly 

 intermittent. 



There is a species of locust, seldom heard until mid- 

 summer, and then only in very warm weather. His note 

 is a pleasant reminder of sultry summer noondays, of 

 languishing heat and refreshing shade. The insect begins 

 low, usually high up in the trees, and increases in loud- 

 ness until it is almost deafening, and then gradually dies 

 away into silence. The most skilful musician could not 

 surpass his crescendo and diminuendo. It has a peculiar 

 vibrating sound that seems to me highly musical and ex- 



