NOTATION OF INSECT MUSIC. 



nervures.* The drone of the dung beetle, the "Drowsy 

 Dorr," which in the still twilight of a summer's evening, 



" Come brushing by 



With buzzing wing "- 



owes also its origin to friction, that of the wing-cases upon the 

 base of the wings. Loud hummers of the same order are the musk 

 beetle, the cock-chafer, and the beautiful green chafer of the 

 rose, which never fails, in alighting on the bosom of his favourite 

 flower, to salute her with a wing sonata of delighted homage. 



The tones of insects, as well as the songs of birds, have been 

 deemed worth the trouble of notation. Gardiner, in his 

 " Music of Nature," tells us that the gnat hums in the note A 

 on the second space ; the death-watch calls (as the owl hoots) 

 in B flat, and is answered in G ; the three notes of the cricket 

 are in B ; the buzz of a bee-hive in F ; that of the house-fly 

 F in the first space ; the humble-bee an octave lower ; the 

 cock-chafer D below the line. 



Although in no case proceeding from the mouth, the sounds 

 we have been hitherto regarding as instrumental music are 

 no less to be considered as a veritable language, serving, in 

 lieu of voice, to communicate information and express pas- 

 sions, such as fear, anger, pleasure, above all, love, that 

 ruler of the rest, which with insect no less than man may be 

 justly denominated the " Soul of Song." 



There is a peculiar sound often heard issuing from a bee- 

 hive previous to its sending forth a swarm, a sharp, clear hum, 



* Insect Miscellanies, p. 91. t Vignette. 



