THE GREEN MINSTRELS 155 



flowering time are pale yellow-brown, and have a 

 golden lustre in the bright August and September 

 sunlight. Could our poetical viridissima have a more 

 suitable home ! And here, coming out from the thick 

 oaks and sauntering about the heath I caught the 

 sound of his delicate shrilling, and to my delight 

 found myself in the midst of a colony. They were 

 not abundant, and one could not experience the 

 sensation produced by many stridulating at a time: 

 they were thinly scattered over two or three acres of 

 ground, but at some points I could hear several of 

 them shrilling together at different distances, and it was 

 not difficult to keep two or three in sight at one time. 



Hitherto I had known this insect as an evening 

 musician, beginning as a rule after sunset and con- 

 tinuing till about eleven o'clock. Here he made his 

 music only during the daylight hours, from about ten 

 or eleven in the morning until five or six o'clock in 

 the afternoon, becoming silent at noon when it was 

 hot. But it was late in the season when I found him, 

 on August 26, and after much rain the weather had 

 become exceptionally cool for the time of year. 



When stridulating it appeared to be the ambition 

 of every male grasshopper to get up as high as he 

 could climb on the stiff blades and thin stalks of the 

 grass ; and there, very conspicuous in his uniform green 

 colour which in a strong sunlight looked like the green 

 of verdigris, his translucent overwings glistening like 

 a dragon-fly's wings, he would shrill and make the 



