KATYDIDS AND THEIR KIN. 219 



of the few birds which frequent a like locality. Their 

 songs, produced in the same manner as those of their 

 larger cousins, the katydids, are as frequent by day 

 as by night, but are usually soft and low in compar- 

 ison with those of the former. Their day song dif- 

 fers from that of the night, and, "it is curious to 

 observe these little creatures suddenly changing from 

 the day to the night song at the mere passing of a 

 cloud, and' returning to the old note when the sky is 

 clear. By imitating the two songs in the daytime, 

 the grasshopper can be made to represent either at 

 will ; at night they have but one note." 



Fig. 51 Lance-tailed Grasshopper. 

 Xiphidium attenuatum Seudder. 



The eggs of these smaller green grasshoppers are 

 deposited within the stems or root leaves of grass, the 

 pith of twigs, or sometimes in the turnip-shaped galls 

 so common on certain species of willow. The ovi- 

 positor being thus used as a piercer, has in time de- 

 veloped into a slender and sharp-pointed instrument 

 which is but little curved and is frequently of exces- 

 sive length, in some species being over twice as long 

 as the remainder of the body. 



Eight of the seventeen belong to the genus Xiphi- 

 dium, meaning " sword-bearer," which includes the 



