" Her waggon spokes made of long spinner's legs, 

 Tbe cover of the wings of grasshoppers, 

 The txaces of the smallest spider's web, 

 The collars of the moonshine's watery beams 

 Her whip of cricket's bone." 



ROMEO AND JULIET, ACT I. SC. IV 



Such is the description of Queen Mab's equipage, 

 a description now quoted, as in it the two insects 

 which form the subject of my present letter, are both 

 casually mentioned. The Grasshopper and the 

 Cricket, for it is to those I allude, belong to the order 

 Orthoptera. Both are insects known to every one by 

 the sense of hearing, as well as that of sight. They 



