BIRDS AND NATURE 



ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



NATURE'S ORCHESTRA. 



IT LL nature is attuned to music. 

 T^ Man may seek the fields, the 

 ± JL forests, the mountains, and the 

 meadows, to escape from 

 distracting noises of the city, but no- 

 where, not even in the depths of moun- 

 tain forests, will he find absolute 

 silence. And well for him that it is so, 

 for should no noise, no vibration of the 

 air greet his accustomed ear, so appall- 

 ing would be the dead silence that he 

 would flee from it as from the grave. 



Even the Bugs make music. They 

 may not be much as vocalists bui: they 

 take part in nature's symphony v/itn 

 the brook, the Bird, and the deep dia- 

 pason of the forest monarch swaying 

 and humming to the gusts of the way- 

 ward wind. It is true that the great 

 majority of our species of insects are 

 silent, and those which do make sounds, 

 have not t^-ue voices, breathing as they 

 do through holes arranged along each 

 side of their body, and not through 

 their mouths, they naturally possess no 

 such arrangement for making noises 

 connected with breathing as we find in 

 the human larynx. 



The "buzzing Fly" and "droning 

 Bee'* are classed among nature's mu- 

 sicians, as well as the Cicadas, Grass- 

 hoppers, Crickets, Locusts, Katydids, 

 and Beetles. Only the males are the mu- 

 sicians in the insect families — with the 

 exception of the Mosquito, the lady be- 

 ing the musical member of that family 

 — and the different kinds of Grasshop- 

 pers are provided with an elaborate 

 musical apparatus by means of which 

 they call their mates. 



Chief among the insect performers is 

 the Cicada, often confused with the Lo- 



cust, though he does not belong to that 

 family at all, who possesses a pair of 

 complicated kettle-drums, which he 

 plays with his muscles instead of sticks. 



Directly behind the base of each hind 

 leg is a circular plate of about one- 

 quarter of an inch in diameter. Be- 

 neath each of these is a cavity across 

 which is stretched a partition of three 

 membranes. At the top is a stiff, folded 

 membrane, which acts as a drum-head. 

 Upon this he plays with his muscles, 

 the vibrations being so rapid that to 

 the ears of some listeners the noise, or 

 music he engenders, sounds more like 

 that of a mandolin than a drum. He is 

 a black fellow with dull green scroll 

 work over his thick body, lives in 

 trees, and is generally invisible when 

 he plays the drum. 



The Grasshopper is the fiddler of the 

 great orchestra, and the hotter the day 

 the more energetically does he fiddle. 

 The fellow with the short horns has a 

 rough hind leg which he uses as a bow; 

 this he draws across the wing cover, 

 giving off the notes which he so dearly 

 loves. Near the base of each fore wing 

 is a peculiar arrangement of veins and 

 cells. This arrangement differs in the 

 different species, but in each it is such 

 that by rubbing the fore wings together 

 they are made to vibrate, and thus, 

 some naturalists aver, the}' make the- 

 sounds which we hear. 



The most easily observed of all 

 insect musicians are the common 

 Crickets. By placing a sod of growing 

 grass in a cage with several male crick- 

 ets, you can watch them play upon 

 their fiddles. Upon the lower side of 

 their wings you will see ridges like 



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