Cp popular Science Btms 
AND 
BOSTON JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY. 
Volume XXY. 
BOSTOl^, SEPTEMBER, 1891. 
]S'UMBER 9. 
CONTENTS. 
Familiar Science.— Summer's Natural Or- 
chestra 
The Death-Watch 
An Extraordinary Tree 
In a Glass Manufactory at Murano . . . 
ITie Dogs of Ancient Egypt 
Ants 
Common Objects Available for Exhibiting 
the Power of the Microscope .... 
Industrial Memoranda 
Scientific Brevities 
The Out-Door World.— A Midwinter Trip 
in Search of Shells 
Leaves from a Naturalist's Diary .... 
Annual Report of the New York City As- 
sembly of the A. A 
Key to the More Common Families of In- 
sects 
Wanted— Native Plants of Maine .... 
Will the A. A. Assist? 
Butterflies 
Squirrels Eat Rats 
Carnivorous S()uirrels 
United States in Account with the Agasaiz 
Association. Dr. to One Scientist, ? 
Additions to the List of Reliable Corre- 
spondents 
Chapter Reports 
List of the Lepidoptera of the District of 
Moschaisk, Government of Moscow, Rus- 
sia 
Editorial.- Water Gas 
Studies in Plant Biology 
Potato Culture 
The Giant Sloths of the Past 
Meteorology for July, 1891 
Astronomical Phenomena for September, 
1891 
Questions and Answers 
Literary Notes 
Medicine and Pharmacy.— Hysteria and 
Its Allies— Ghosts and Superstitions . 
Prescriptions and Their Owners .... 
Jewels as Medicines 
Monthly Summary of Medical Progress . 
Medical Miscellany 
Publishers' Column 
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familiar ^oienGe. 
[Original In Populas Science News.] 
SUMMER'S NATURAL ORCIIESTR.\. 
BY ANNA IIINRICHS. 
Tins is the concert season of the insect world. 
An invisible orchestra makes melodious the wood- 
land glades, the sunny fields, and floral splendor. 
The dreamy charm of summer's grateful retreats 
is heightened by a concord of pleasing sounds. 
The musicians are concealed in the arching 
branches overhead ; they express contentment 
and gratitude whilst sipping the nectar of fra- 
grant flora;— nay, the very couch of creeping 
grass is charged with harmonists! Song is the 
expression of happiness. In most types of this 
winged kingdom, Nature has seen fit to grant 
musical tendencies only to the masculine ele- 
ment. Obviously the permeating happiness of 
this winged realm is due to the blessed possession 
of silent wives ! It was on a hot day in July that 
Beethoven composed his "Pastoral Symphony." 
While pensively resting on a stile in the environs 
of Vienna, Nature gave him those imitative sounds 
which he has so beautifully reproduced. We hear 
with the immortal composer the soft hum and stir 
of the insects on a mid-summer's day, breathing 
of life and happiness. 
Who has provided instruments delicate enough 
for these liliputian performers? Nature! Instru- 
ments that are ever ready and in tune so long as 
the little life is instinct. Nor are these gratuitous 
concerts monotonous, as might be inferred from 
the limited facilities with which the organization 
is endowed. The compositions of these natural 
concordants range in pitch through three octaves 
and a quarter! The musk-beetle is the prima- 
donna. Its cry, in the quadruple-quaver of D, is 
the highest of all the insect race. The opposite 
extreme in register is the deep buzz on A of the 
bumble-bee. He is the bass tuba of this musical 
company. Between these extreme soloists — a 
span of three and one-quarter octaves — occur the 
utterances of all crawling hexapeds in Nature's 
salle de concert. 
The musical instruments of the higher lieings 
are the lungs, larynx, jaws, and mouth. No in- 
sect has real voice. It is gifted only to the extent 
of producing melodious sound. Dr. Landois has 
classified these sounds into noise and tone. Tone 
is produced by those provided with respiratory 
organs similar to those of man — lungs and larynx. 
Noise is effected by means of friction or rubbing 
together of attached members of the body. Rep- 
resentatives of the order Coleoptera (sheath-wing) 
make themselves audible by rubbing together the 
wing-shells. A few of this order are capable of 
producing tone. Tlie Moschatus ( musk-beetle ) 
emits a peculiar bat-like sound. It is somewhat 
discordant, not unlike the — to some persons — 
curdling noise of a scratching slate-pencil. The 
sound issues from a peculiar bi-east-work mechan- 
ism of ridge-like veins. In manipulating this 
musical apparatus the head moves up and down. 
Even in microscopic beetles this automatic move- 
ment may be detected. The resultant noise, how- 
ever, is too feeble to penetrate the ear. Tlie Ves- 
pillo ( burying-1>eetle ) makes a queer rattling 
noise. Although produced througli friction, it is 
very like a guttural sound. The VuUjaris (cock- 
chaffer) sounds his corno di bassetto on / below the 
staff. ' 
"R37 
Highly interesting is the sound apparatus of the 
common May-beetle. Suspended in the trachea is 
a little tongue which, in breathing, moves back 
and forth. This contrivance results in that well- 
known whirring cry with which the insect heraldsi 
its approach. 
"Death-watch" {Tesselatum) was once a terror 
inspiring word. This perfectly harmless little 
insect is often secreted in old worm-eaten furni- 
ture and wood-work. Its presence is readily de- 
tected bj' tapping with the head of a pin. If 
present it responds immediately with its charac- 
teristic tick. The sensitive ear will at once per- 
ceive that the death-watch cry is in two voices — 
the call and the answer. 
Call. 
5^ 
Answer. 
The Orthoptera (straight-wing) insects produce 
noise through friction. The lively note of the 
cricket — a result of sharp friction of the legs — 
is a series of triplets in B. 
The roving grasshopper is a veritable violinist. 
The hinder limb is his violin; the wing serves 
as his bow. The inner side of the limb is bor- 
dered with from ninety to a hundred microscopic 
teeth. The wing has a prominent vein, projecting 
like a ledge; this serves as a bow. This bow, 
drawn across the violin, creates that well-known 
rustling sound. All living violins are not in the 
same key. Rejjair to the meadow gate at twi- 
light. Hai-k ! the viola principale ! The first and 
second violins in duet, with interludes and solos 
by the tenor violin ! 
Evidently the grasshopper has degenerated in 
his musical qualifications— based on ancient tradi- 
tion. Plutarch relates tlie following : As Ter- 
pander was playing his lyre at the Olympic 
games, and had just carried his listeners into the 
most acute throes of rapture, — a string broke! 
Instanter a singing Cicada lit on the bridge, sup- 
plying the loss of the string, and thereby saving 
the fame of the performer. 
The Dutch call these singing locusts "lyre- 
players," because of the resemblance of their 
notes to that of a vibrating wire. This creature 
has been described by Anacreon as the "emblem 
of felicity — ever young and immortal; offspring 
of Pluebus and darling of the Muses." The Athe- 
nians were enthusiastic lovers of these "song- 
sters." They kept them in gilded cages, and 
spoke of them as "nightingales of the nymphs." 
It must be conceded that even today the song of 
the Cicada is of a more complex composition than 
that of any otlier of the winged (hexaped) race. 
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