The Green Grasshopper 



clamourers; all that reaches me is the least 

 ripple, just noticeable when there is a mo- 

 ment's silence. He possesses as his ap- 

 paratus of sound only a modest drum and 

 scraper, whereas they, more highly privi- 

 leged, have their bellows, the lungs, which 

 send forth a column of vibrating air. There 

 is no comparison possible. Let us return to 

 the insects. 



One of these, though inferior in size and 

 no less sparingly equipped, greatly surpasses 

 the Grasshopper in nocturnal rhapsodies. 

 I speak of the pale and slender Italian 

 Cricket (CEcanthus pellucens, SCOP.), who 

 is so puny that you dare not take him up 

 for fear of crushing him. He makes music 

 everywhere among the rosemary-bushes, 

 while the Glow-worms light up their blue 

 lamps to complete the revels. The delicate 

 instrumentalist consists chiefly of a pair of 

 large wings, thin and gleaming as strips of 

 mica. Thanks to these dry sails, he fiddles 

 away with an intensity capable of drowning 

 the Toads' fugue. His performance sug- 

 gests, but with more brilliancy, more tremolo 

 in the execution, the song of the Common 

 Black Cricket. Indeed the mistake would 

 certainly be made by any one who did not 



