PREFACE. Yli 



thought we knew, but here is a specimen closely 

 resembling it which proves to be quite a different 

 flower. The little frog called the Savannah cricket 

 chirps his crieketlike chirp in New Jersey, and we 

 imagine we hear him in New Hampshire ; but no — it 

 is another larger frog with a similar voice. We 

 thought a cricket was simply a cricket with a chirp 

 the same the world over ; not so ! there are crickets 

 and crickets, and each species has it own song. The 

 whip-poor-will certainly seems to sing the same 

 familiar old tune North and South ; perhaps he does, 

 but in three or four evenings, after having listened 

 attentively, we discover that every song is different, 

 not only in key, but in construction, octaves occur- 

 ring in some, and thirds or fifths occurring in others. 

 No two robins sing precisely the same melody ; no 

 two Wilson thrushes roll out their double-toned notes 

 in exactly the same way. 



Always variety, endless variety ; never any sense- 

 less repetition in Nature ; she gives us a serial story 

 which is never fully told. Month succeeds month, 

 chapter succeeds chapter, and ever there is something 

 new. The few records contained in the following 

 pages are only an introduction to a boundless world 

 whose story would fill a library of astounding magni- 

 tude ! But the little that I have given comes straight 

 from the country highways and byways, and many 



