2o6 Insect Music [FIFTH WEEK 



yet seldom is the limitation of human perception of musical 

 sounds considered. 



If we wish to appreciate the limits within which the 

 human ear is capable of distinguishing sounds, we should 

 sit down in a meadow, some hot midsummer day, and 

 listen to the subdued running murmur of the myriads of 

 insects. Many are very distinct to our ears and we have 

 little trouble in tracing them to their source. Such are 

 crickets and grasshoppers, which fiddle and rasp their 

 roughened hind legs against their wings. Some butterflies 

 have the power of making a sharp crackling sound by 

 means of hooks on the wings. The katydid, so annoying 

 to some in its persistent ditty, so full of reminiscences to 

 others of us, is a large, green, fiddling grasshopper. 



Another sound which is typical of summer is the hum 

 of insects' wings, sometimes, as near a beehive, rising to a 

 subdued roar. The higher, thinner song of the mosquito's 

 wings is unfortunately familiar to us, and we must re- 

 member that the varying tone of the hum of each species 

 may be of the greatest importance to it as a means of 

 recognition. Many beetles have a projecting horn on the 

 under side of the body which they can snap against another 

 projection, and by this means call their lady-loves, literally 

 "playing the bones " in their minstrel serenade. 



Although we can readily distinguish the sounds which 

 these insects produce, yet there are hundreds of small 

 creatures, and even large ones, which are provided with 

 organs of hearing, but whose language is too fine for our 

 coarse perceptions. The vibrations chirps, hums, and 

 clicks can be recorded on delicate instruments, but, just 



