MEADOW SINGERS. 



The green grasshopper is a day singer, who revels 

 in the noontime heat with the mercury standing 

 at 90. 



The brown cricket (Gryllus dUbreviatus\* com- 

 mon in the Middle States, who lives in the pastures 

 and the grassy borders 

 of the road, is a day- 

 light and twilight 

 singer ; his sharp 

 musical note also 

 thrills interruptedly 

 from sunset to sun- 

 rise along with the 

 softer and more regu- 

 lar note of the white 

 cricket. In June and 



July the meadows and wooded pastures are filled 

 with the cricket's music. His chirp is fitful and 

 shrill ; it is not really a trill, but the rapid repeti- 

 tion of a single note from three to five times with 

 irregular intervals. I can not rely on the black 

 cricket for three-four time or six-eight time ; he 

 " gangs his ain gait," as the Scotchman would say, 

 and leaves me and my metronome to go mine. 



* G. neglectus is the most common New England cricket. G. 

 luctuosus is also common ; its fore wings are very long and project 

 beyond the abdomen. It is one of our largest crickets. 

 8 



Brown Cricket, and 

 tiny Spotted Cricket 



