156 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



grass to which he was clinging tremble to his rapidly 

 vibrating body. Then he would listen to the shrill 

 response of some other singer not far off, and then 

 sing and listen again, and yet again ; then all at once 

 in a determined manner he would set out to find his 

 rival, travelling high up through the grass, climbing 

 stems and blades until they bent enough for him to 

 grasp others and push on, reminding one of a squirrel 

 progressing through the thin highest branches of a 

 hazel copse. After covering the distance in this 

 manner, with a few short pauses by the way to shrill 

 back an answering challenge, he would find a suitable 

 place near to the other, still in his place high up in 

 the grass; and then the two, a foot or so, sometimes 

 three or four inches, apart, would begin a regular duel 

 in sound at short range. Each takes his turn, and 

 when one sings the other raises one of his forelegs to 

 listen ; one may say that in lifting a leg he " cocks 

 an ear." The attitude of the insects is admirably 

 given in the accompanying drawing from life. This 

 contest usually ends in a real fight: one advances, 

 and when at a distance of five or six inches makes a 

 leap at his adversary, and the other, prepared for what 

 is coming and in position, leaps too at the same 

 moment, so that they meet midway, and strike each 

 other with their long spiny hind legs. It is done so 

 quickly that the movements cannot be followed by 

 the eye, but that they do hit hard is plain, as in many 

 cases one is knocked down or flung to some distance 



