430 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



•are provided with a sort of bag-pipe, and the insects repre- 

 sent in their respective species the harpist, the vioHnist and 

 the drummer. 



Thus there are several species that make sounds by the 

 vibration of a membrane attached to their sides or to the 

 shoulders of their wings. Such are most of the crickets and 

 grasshoppers. Others of the same tribes rub their legs 

 against a vibrating appendage connected with their sides, in 

 humble imitation of the violin players : lastly, the drumming 

 insects, like the woodticks, are provided with a little ham- 

 mer, 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 chamber or sitting room, has a soothing and 

 tranquilizing influence ; and may be regarded as one of those 

 circumstances 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 aff"orded 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 singing insects. The 

 latter comprehend the locusts, the crickets and the grass- 

 hoppers, 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 constructed on the 



