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Handbook of Nature-Study 



LESSON LXXXI 

 Thk K at void 



Leading thought— The katvdids resemble the long-horned grasshoppers 

 and the crickets. They Hve'in trees, and the male sings "katy-did" by 

 means of a musical instrument similar to that of the cricket. 



Method — Place a katydid in a cricket cage in the schoolroom, giving it 

 fresh leaves or flowers ea'ch day, and encouraging the pupils to watch it at 

 recess. It may be placed in a vial and passed around, for close observa- 

 tion. In studying this insect, use the lesson on the red-legged grass- 

 hopper and also that on the cricket. These lessons will serve to call the 

 attention of the pupils to the differences and resemblances between the 

 katydid and these two allied insects. 





A pair of dusky lovers. 

 Drawing by Ida Baker. 



THE BLACK CRICKETS 



Of the insect musicians the cricket is easily the most popular. Long associated 

 with man, as a companion of the hearth and the field, his song touches ever the 

 chords of htiman experience. Although we, in America, do not have the house- 

 cricket which English poets praise, yet our field-crickets have a liking for warm 

 corners, and will, if encouraged, take up their abode among our hearthstones. The 

 greatest tribute to the music of the cricket is the wide range of human emotion which 

 it expresses. "As merry as a cricket" is a very old saying and is evidence that the 

 cricket's fiddling has ever chimed with the gay moods of dancers and merrymakers. 

 Again, the cricket's song is made an emblem of peace; and again we hear that the 

 cricket's "plaintive cry'^' is taken as the harbinger of the sere and dying year. From 

 happiness to utter loneliness is the gamut covered by this sympathetic song. Leigh 

 Hunt found him glad and thus addresses him: 



"And you, little housekeeper who class 

 Wiili those who think the candles come too soon. 

 Loving the fire, and with your tricksome tune 

 Nick the glad, silent moments as they pass." 



Ways of the Six-Footed. 



