196 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



some hours. To sing, the males often go high up in 

 the bushes, and when emitting their sound are almost 

 constantly on the move. 



The sound is a cricket-like chirp ; it is never sus- 

 tained, but in quality it resembles the subtle musical 

 shrilling of the viridissima, although it does not carry 

 half so far. 



In disposition the two species, the black and great 

 green grasshoppers, are very unlike. The female viri- 

 dissima, we have seen, is the most indolent and placid 

 creature imaginable, while the males are perpetually 

 challenging and fighting one another. The males of 

 the black grasshopper I could never detect fighting. It 

 is not easy to observe them, as they sing mostly at night ; 

 and as a rule when singing they are well hidden by 

 the leaves. But I have occasionally found two males 

 singing together, apparently against each other, when 

 I would watch them, and although as they moved 

 about they constantly passed and repassed so close 

 that they all but touched, they never struck at each 

 other, nor put themselves into fighting attitudes. One 

 day I found two males sitting on a leaf together, side 

 by side, like the best of friends, basking in the sun. 



The female, on the other hand, is a most unplea- 

 sant creature, so restless that in confinement she 

 spends the whole time in running about in her cage 

 or box, incessantly trying to get out, examining every- 

 thing, eating of everything given her, and persecuting 

 any other bisect placed with her. When I put males 



