160 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



air we breathe. Every one of these sounds 

 is produced on a wind instrument. But the 

 cricket fiddles to his mate, and so do his 

 cousins the grasshopper and the katydid. 



When the grasshopper tunes his musical 

 instrument the fiddle is the prominent vein 

 on his front wing, and for bow he uses his 

 long hind leg, drawing it gleefully across the 

 quivering wing. But the katydid and the 

 cricket, who are nearer of kin to each other 

 than either of them is to the grasshopper, 

 both use one wing for fiddle and the other 

 for bow. When they grow merry they rub 

 both wings together, much as a character 

 in the old-fashioned novel rubbed his hands. 



HIS STRANGE EAR 



But, strange as is his musical instrument, 

 his ear is stranger. Its only resemblance 

 to ours lies in the fact that it has a drum 

 and has nerves back of it. Of the flap, 

 which is the conspicuous but comparatively 

 less important part of ours, there is no trace, 

 and, such as this ear is, he wears it just be- 

 low the knee of his front leg. 



