Grasshoppers, Crickets, and Locusts. 237 



" voice " becomes irresolute, flat, false in quantity ; then it 

 pulls itself together and starts afresh clear, firm, and true. 

 It is very easy, if you have the whim to do so, to guess at 

 some of the grasshopper's moods from the way it sings. 



It is worth, perhaps, saying that the grasshopper makes its 

 music by scraping the inner edge of its long hind legs against 

 the ridges of the wings, and the cricket by rubbing the 

 wing-covers against the wings. 



" The cricket chirrup' d in his coat of mail; 

 The brisk cicada answered him aloud 

 And rubb'd the emerald armour of his thighs " 



Why they should make these noises is not obvious ; but 

 as it is only the male that is harmonious, the presumption is 

 that the music serves the same purpose as analogous accom- 

 plishments in birds as being an ornament to the " stronger " 

 sex and an attraction to the "weaker." The poets, by the 

 way, almost invariably address the chirping grasshopper as 

 " she," just as they always transfer the male nightingale's song 

 to the hen-bird. 



Among the oddities of zoological folklore I find the grass- 

 hopper written down as an idle and thoughtless person. It 

 is of a loquacious kind, a chatterer, and therefore flighty, 

 irresponsible, a ne'er-do-weel, It starves when hard times 

 come ; begs its bread in winter. So it figures as the opposite 

 of the ant ; a contrast to the silent and industrious emmet. 

 How old the idea may be no one can say ; but, at any rate, 

 it is as venerable as the most ancient Sanskrit legends. For 

 there we find the grasshopper spoken of as an improvident 

 individual and an unreliable. It runs a race with the ant, 

 but after making some astonishing leaps takes a nap, just as 

 the hare does when racing the tortoise, and of course the ant 

 plods in first. Again, it neglects to store its larder, and the 

 ant a detestable little prig in folklore gives it a good 

 lecturing when it ought instead to have helped the poor 



