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loudness, until it is almost deafening, and then gradually dies 

 away into silence. The most skilful musician could not 

 perform a more delightful crescendo and diminuendo. It has 

 a peculiar vibratory sound, that seems to me highly musical 

 and delightful. The insect that produces this note is a 

 grotesque looking creature, resembling about equally a grass- 

 hopper and a humble bee. 



The black crickets and their familiar chirping are well 

 known to every body. It is an insect of this tribe that is 

 celebrated in English romance as the " cricket on the hearth." 

 The American species do not so habitually frequent our 

 dwelling houses ; but they are all around our door steps, and 

 by the wayside, under every dry fence and every sandy hill. 

 They chirp night and day, and more or less in all kinds of 

 weather. They commence their songs many weeks before 

 the grasshoppers, and continue them to a later period in the 

 autumn, not ceasing until the hard frosts have driven them 

 into their retreats, and silenced them by a torpid sleep. 



The note of the katydid, which is a drumming sound, has 

 less music in it than that of some of the other insects I have 

 described. In our literature no other species has become so 

 widely celebrated, probably on account of the fancied resem- 

 blance of his notes to the word katydid. To my ear an 

 assemblage of these little musicians, all engaged in uttering 

 their peculiar note, seems more like the hammering of a 

 thousand little smiths in some busy hamlet of insects. 

 There is nothing melodious in these sounds, and they are 

 accordingly less suggestive of poetical thoughts than those of 

 the green nocturnal grasshopper, that is heard at the same 

 hour and in similar situations. 



The nocturnal grasshoppers, sometimes called the August 

 pipers, commence their chirping about the second week in 

 August. These are the true nightingales of insects, and the 

 tribe that seems to me most worthy of being consecrated to 

 poetry. There is a singular plaintiveness in their low and 

 monotonous 'notes, which is the charm of the late summer 

 and early autumnal evenings ; and there are but few persons 

 who are not affected, by these sounds, with a remarkable 



