MTISIC OF INSBCTS. 229 



rub their legs against a vibrating appendage connected 

 with their sides, in humble imitation of violin players ; 

 lastly, the drumming insects, like the woodticks, are 

 provided with a little hammer, which they strike against 

 the ceiling that forms their retreat. It seems to me 

 that no man can be indifferent to the sounds and music 

 of insects. Even the buzzing of flies about one's cham- 

 ber or sitting-room, has a soothing and tranquillizing 

 influence ; and may be regarded as one of those circum- 

 stances provided by nature to relieve the world of that 

 dead silence, which would otherwise render this earth a 

 dreary and melancholy abode. We are so formed, that 

 every sound in nature, except her notes of alarm, by 

 habit becomes pleasing and assimilated to music ; and' 

 in the silence of winter, the increased delight affbrdedi 

 us by every remaining sound, is an evidence of this- 

 truth. The tiny hammering of the woodtick in the 

 ceiling, the buzzing of flies, and, above all, the chirping 

 of the cricket on the hearth, are among the poetical 

 sounds that are associated with winter days at home,, 

 as the voices of the raven, the jay, and the woodpecker 

 are suggestive of winter in the woods. 



The fly, the gnat, the beetle, and the moth, thoughi 

 each utters a sound that awakens many pleasing 

 thoughts and images, are not to be ranked among sing- 

 ing insects. The latter comprehend the locusts, the- 

 crickets, and the grasshoppers, that seem appointed by~ 

 nature to take up their little lyre and drum, after the- 

 birds have laid aside their more musical pipe and flute 

 Though certain insects are supposed to make their 

 sounds by means of wind, their apparatus is placed 

 outside of their bodies, and as they have no lungs, the- 

 air is obtained by a peculiar inflation of their chests- 

 Hence the musical appendages of such insects are con- 



20 



