

NOTES BY THE WAY 



with great vigor and spirit, " Katy-did," "Katy- 

 did," or "Katy-did n't." Toward the last of Sep- 

 tember they have taken in sail a good deal, and cry 

 simply, "Katy," "Katy," with frequent pauses 

 and resting-spells. In October they languidly gasp 

 or rasp, "Kate," "Kate," "Kate," and before the 

 end of the month they become entirely inaudible, 

 though I suspect that if one's ear were sharp enough 

 he might still hear a dying whisper, "Kate," 

 "Kate." Those cousins of Katy, the little green 

 purring tree-crickets, fail in the same way and at 

 the same time. When their chorus is fullest, the 

 warm autumn night fairly throbs with the soft lull- 

 ing undertone. I notice that the sound is in waves 

 or has a kind of rhythmic beat. What a gentle, 

 unobtrusive background it forms for the sharp, 

 reedy notes of the katydids ! As the season ad- 

 vances, their life ebbs and ebbs : you hear one here 

 and one there, but the air is no longer filled with 

 that regular pulse-beat of sound. One by one the 

 musicians cease, till, perhaps on some mild night 

 late in October, you hear just hear and that is 

 all the last feeble note of the last of these little 

 harpers. 



LOVE AND WAR AMONG THE BIRDS 



In the spring movements of the fishes up the 

 stream, toward their spawning-beds, the females are 

 the pioneers, appearing some days in advance of 

 149 



