Cricket Music 



Anna Botsford Comstock 

 After our bird songsters have left us, and only the meadowlark 

 remains to greet us with his summer song, we still have, until the 

 heaviest frosts come, the most insistent and cheerful of insect 

 musicians, the crickets. These little creatures seem to recognize 

 that their time for music making must soon end, and therefore they 

 keep their winged mandolins vibrating more steadily than ever 

 before. This is a very interesting fact, because with the crickets, 



A pair of dusky lovers 



Drawing by Ida Baker 



as with birds, only the males are musicians, and music is the means 

 of attracting their mates. But in October, long after the breeding 

 season has passed, the male crickets keep up their music for the 

 mere love of it. This is carried so far that with the Snowy Tree- 

 crickets, an orchestral performance is accomplished, each musician 

 keeping the beat and the rhythm of the notes. Sometimes an 

 individual player joins the chorus at the wrong beat, but he soon 

 discovers his error and rectifies it. The Snowy Tree-Crickets' 

 orchestra begins on hot afternoons in early August, and continues 

 throughout September, and during the warm days of October. 



Since so much attention is given these days to the study of music 

 in the schools, there can certainly be no more interesting nature 



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