160 THE QUEEN BEE. 



believe, the largest of our various bats, measuring 

 from the tip of one wing to that of the other from 

 fifteen to sixteen inches. I have kept them alive 

 for some time, but they are very offensive. 



Some Insects utter sounds, such as the death- 

 watch (Ptinus fatidicus), a sort of ticking noise, 

 and the house-cricket. A young queen Bee, ge- 

 nerally the evening before she quits the hive with a 

 swarm, utters a very plaintive cry. I can have little 

 doubt that it is produced from the throat, and not 

 by the action of the wings, as I have frequently 

 taken one of those stingless bees, we find in the 

 autumn on sun-flowers and other plants, and on 

 preventing any action whatever of the wings, I 

 have heard it utter the same mournful and dis- 

 tressing cry as that of the queen bee. The Field- 

 Cricket makes a cry which every lover of nature 

 must delight to hear, " filling his mind," as Mr. 

 White observes, with a train of " Summer ideas of. 

 every thing that is rural, verdurous, and joyous." 

 But it is time to conclude this desultory notice 

 of the tones of animals,* which I will do by re- 

 ferring to the call of the Corn-crake, one of those 

 sounds, which rftay be heard on a still sum- 



* The Tench is the only fresh-water fish which I have ever 

 heard produce a sound. It is said to be made through its bron- 

 chial opercula. The sound is so distressing to hear, that I have 

 quitted my hold of a tench when taking a hook out of its mouth 

 from its unpleasantness, and the surprise it occasioned me. 



