MUSIC OF INSECTS. 229 



rub their legs against a vibrating appendage connected 

 with their sides, in humble imitation of violin players ; 

 lastly, the drumming insects, like the woodticks, are 

 provided with a little hammer, which they strike against 

 the ceiling that forms their retreat. It seems to me 

 that no man can be indifferent to the sounds and music 

 of insects. Even the buzzing of flies about one's cham 

 ber or sitting-room, has a soothing and tranquillizing 

 influence ; and may be regarded as one of those circum 

 stances provided by nature to relieve the world of that 

 dead silence, which would otherwise render this earth a 

 dreary and melancholy abode. We are so formed, that 

 every sound in nature, except her notes of alarm, by 

 habit becomes pleasing and assimilated to music ; and 

 in the silence of winter, the increased delight afforded 

 us by every remaining sound, is an evidence of this 

 truth. The tiny hammering of the woodtick in the- 

 ceiling, the buzzing of flies, and, above all, the chirping 

 of the cricket on the hearth, .are among the poetical 

 sounds that are associated with winter days at home,, 

 as the voices of the raven, the jay, and the woodpecker 

 are suggestive of winter in the woods. 



The fly, the gnat, the beetle, and the moth, though 

 each utters a sound that awakens many pleasing 

 thoughts and images, are not to be ranked among sing 

 ing insects. The latter comprehend the locusts, the- 

 crickets, and the grasshoppers, that seem appointed by 

 nature to take up their little lyre and drum, after the- 

 birds have laid aside their more musical pipe and flute.. 

 Though certain insects are supposed to make their 

 sounds by means of wind, their apparatus is placed: 

 outside of their bodies, and as they have no lungs, the 

 air is obtained by a peculiar inflation of their chests. 

 Hence the musical appendages of such insects are con- 



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