PIPERS AND MINNESINGERS 



25 



color, which makes him seem a ghost of an insect 

 rather than a real one. Figure 13 shows a male of the 

 species ; his fiddle is in structure similar to that of the 

 black cricket. He is a true ventriloquist, and it is 

 almost impossible to find him by following the seeming 

 direction of his song. 



There are two species of snowy tree-crickets common 

 in eastern United States which resemble each other 

 so closely in appearance 

 that only an entomologist's 

 trained eye can distinguish 

 them. However, their 

 music is totally different. 

 I remember well a certain 

 September when I was as- 

 sociated with two ento- 

 mologists who spent most 

 of their leisure in a patient 

 and loving study of the habits of these two species. One 

 they named " the whistler " and the other " the fiddler." 

 The whistler is oftener found on low shrubs or in the 

 grass, and he gives a clear, soft, prolonged, unbroken 

 note. The fiddler's note is louder and short and con- 

 tinuously repeated. To the listener it soon seems like 

 a refined and gentle imitation of the katydid's song. 

 There seem to be three notes, the first and thu'd being 



Fig. 13. Snowy Tree-cricket. 



