The Chorus of the Forest 



love. Then some change comes, and an effort is 

 made to remove tliem to a diiFerent location and 

 atmosphere. They end the same as deep forest 

 floA\'ers hrought into the strong light of yard and 

 garden; only as a rule people i)ine and die more 

 quickly. 



A few bees humming around the foxglove set 

 me to Avatching for insect musicians. The pale 

 flowers of deep forest were not attractive as was xhe 

 the growth outside. There was only an occasional Locust's 

 butterfly. But there were millions of other insects 

 singing everywhere around us, and the leaders were 

 the locusts. Sometimes they flew so close, making 

 music on wing, that we dodged and oiu- ears rang. 

 We caught several and examined them, and in- 

 duced one to pose for us on a locust tree. They 

 are an inch and a half in length, a rare green color 

 with brown markings, and have large eyes, a stout, 

 sharp tongue, silvery white legs, and long wing- 

 shields, appearing as if cut from thinnest isinglass, 

 the shorter true wing beneath. 



These wingshields are divided into small sec- 

 tions by veins that hold the transparent jiarts se- 

 curely, and the outer edge has a stout rim. Using 

 these rims for their strings, the crisp space for 

 sounding-boards, and tlie femur of the hind legs 

 for bows, the locust amazed us by not singing at 

 all, for he fiddled away gayly as he led the insect 

 orchestra. As far as A\e could hear through the 



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