

A CELESTIAL CHOIR 



larger, and the volume of sound they are capable of 

 were porportionately increased, the buzz of the one 

 and the shrill of the other would be quite unbear- 

 able to human ears. But then we hear the bee and 

 gnat quite close at hand. The unseen choir of July 

 insects, of whatever species they be, are clean out 

 of sight, to be seen no more by the aid of strong 

 field-glasses than by the naked eye. 



There is every reason, moreover, to suppose that 

 the individuals of which this celestial choir is made 

 up are far smaller and weaker-voiced than any bee. 

 Hence we may infer that their numbers are practi- 

 cally infinite. How is it that they do not cause a 

 cloud in the air high above us ? There is no per- 

 ceptible break in the hum. It does not appear to 

 rise and fall. It is a dead level of sound, a mono- 

 tony, on the whole if not listened to overlong 

 agreeable. Faintly, it may remind one of the sound 

 of a moderate wind among a large number of 

 telegraph wires. 



In the spots where I have noticed it, I have not 

 observed the swifts, the highest-hawking of the 

 insect birds, to be particularly numerous. The air, 

 I believe, never hums except in the full summer and 

 during hot sunshine. When it hummed so loudly 

 the other afternoon, the conditions had probably 

 been favourable to the hatching out of many kinds 

 of- insects. Hours of hot summer sun, closely follow- 

 ing rain, seem favourable to the progress of insect 

 life to the winged state. In June we often notice 

 this in the case of orange-tip and fritillary butterflies. 



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