ROADSIDE LIFE. 



235 



dying climb up some weed, to which they cling so 

 firmly in their death grip that their bodies remain 

 clinging to the plant long after death. Find speci- 

 mens of locusts that have been killed in this way and 

 preserve them with the part of the plant to which 

 they are clinging. 



THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE CRICKET. 



The poetry of earth is never dead : 



When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, 



And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run 



From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead : 



That is the grasshopper's — he takes the lead 



In summer luxury — he has never done 



With his delights ; for, when tired out with fun, 



He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed. 



The poetry of earth is ceasing never : 



On a lone winter evening, when the frost 



Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills 



The cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever, 



And seems to one in drowsiness half lost, 



The grasshopper's among some grassy hills. 



John Keats. 



THE SONGS OF INSECTS. 



Comparatively little is known regarding the songs 

 of insects, if under this head we include all the 

 sounds produced by these creatures. In a few in- 

 stances the way in which the sounds are produced 

 and the apparent object are understood ; but in the 

 great majority of cases this is not so. 



Flies buzz when on the wing, but why? It may 

 be that the sound is merely incident to the rapid mo- 

 tion of their wings, and means no more than the hum 

 of rapidly moving machinery. But this can hardly 

 16 



