590 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



that made by a rattlesnake that when I hear one on the 

 ground I know that it is a snake, and I hunt for a stick. 

 but when the same sound is in the trees I know that 

 if is an insect making the noise. 



One day a cicada flew around over my head in a most 

 bewildering manner, all the time emitting its dry, rat- 

 tling noise, and it was some time before I discovered 

 that a large dragon fly had seized the " locust " and was 

 darting back and forth with its noisy captive. After 

 the cicadae have been singing for some time they are 

 joined by other arboreal musicians, and on cloudy days 

 or the late afternoon the katydids may be heard stutter- 

 ing among the branches overhead. 



For two or three days they get no further along 

 with their conversation than " stut-stut-stut " at irregu- 

 lar intervals. As a rule, the katydids begin to sing just 

 about the time the cicadae quit, and on moonlight nights 

 I have heard them keep it up until morning. 



Some persons, with a sad lack of imagination, have 

 declared that the katydids do not really voice their own 

 names or engage in a dispute and parliamentary debate 

 on the question whether katydid or katy didn't; but 

 these folk with equal truth can say the American quail 

 cannot articulate the words " Bob White," and that the 

 Phoebe bird, chewink, and chickadee are incapable of 

 pronouncing their own names. But the fact remains 

 that the noise they make does sound like the words at- 

 tributed to them. To translate any of the bird or in- 

 sect noises into English requires some imagination on 

 the part of the listener. The truth is that no one can 

 be a naturalist, or, for that matter, no one could be a 



