100 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



it is one of the least interesting and most ear-ring- 

 ing voices of the meadow or roadside. He is sharp- 

 toothed, too, as well as sharp-tongued, a fact which 

 I have more than once ascertained by a too intimate 

 acquaintance with the really handsome insect ; but 

 William Hamilton Gibson makes game of him, and 

 calls him "the clown of all this heyday" so justly 

 that we certainly should read Singing Wings * for 

 the sake of this amusing and fuller description. 



But speaking of " biters " reminds me of another 

 sharp-toothed character, whose vicious nip is some- 

 times sufficiently tenacious to cause him the loss of 

 his head. The katydid (Microcentrum retinervis) is 

 a frequent singer on the highway in the evening 

 hours. He looks like a large green grasshopper, but 

 he has larger wings, which are leaflike and delicately 

 veined ; his antennae are much longer than his body, 

 and his slender, long legs give him a peculiarly dis- 

 tinguished appearance, quite superior to that of a 

 plebeian grasshopper. The katydid lives among the 

 trees and hides under the leaves in the daytime, but 

 as soon as the sun sets emerges from seclusion and 

 begins his " petulant and shrill " tirade. Dr. Holmes 

 calls him a " testy little dogmatist," and, as William 

 Hamilton Gibson remarks, falls into an excusable 



* See Harper's Magazine for 1886, vol. Ixxiii. 



