CHARACTEK OF THE MUSIC 151 



moment about half a second, and the strain may 

 go on for ten minutes or longer before a break of 

 any length. But the quality is the chief thing; and 

 here we find individual differences, and that some 

 have a lower, weaker note, in which may be detected 

 a buzz, or sibilation, as in the field-grasshopper; but, 

 as a rule, it is of a shrillness and musicalness which 

 is without parallel. The squealings of bats, shrews, 

 and young mice are excessively sharp, and are aptly 

 described as "needles of sound," but they are not 

 musical. The only bird I know which has a note 

 comparable to the viridissima is the lesser white- 

 throat the excessively sharp, bright sound emitted 

 both as an anger-note and in that low and better 

 song described in a former chapter. It is this musical 

 sharpness which pleases in the insect, and makes it 

 so unlike all other sounds in a world so full of sound. 

 Its incisiveness produces a curious effect : sitting still 

 and listening for some time at a spot where several 

 insects are stridulating, certain nerves throb with the 

 sound until it seems that it is in the brain, and is 

 like that disagreeable condition called " ringing in the 

 ears" made pleasant. Almost too fine and sharp to 

 be described as metallic, perhaps it comes nearer to 

 the familiar sound described by Henley 



Of ice and glass the tinkle, 

 Pellucid, crystal-shrill. 



Crystal beads dropped in a stream down a crystal 

 stair would produce a sound somewhat like the 



