MEADOW SINGEES. 



97 



The green grasshopper is a day singer, who revels 

 in the noontime heat with the mercury standing 

 at 90°. 



The brown cricket {Gryllus aljbreviatus),'" com- 

 mon in the Middle States, who lives in the pastures 

 and the grassy borders 

 of the road, is a day- 

 light and twilight 

 singer ; his sharp 

 musical note also 

 thrills interruptedly 

 from sunset to sun- 

 rise along with the 

 softer and more regu- 



Brown Cricket, and 

 tiny Spotted Cricket 



lar note of the white 

 cricket. In June and 



July the meadows and wooded pastures are filled 

 with the cricket's music. His chirp is fitful and 

 shrill ; it is not really a trill, but the rapid repeti- 

 tion of a single note from three to five times ■with 

 irregular intervals. I can not rely on the black 

 cricket for three-four time or six-eight time ; he 

 " gangs his ain gait," as the Scotchman would say, 

 and leaves me and my metronome to go mine. 



* O. neglectus is the most common New P^ngland cricket. G, 

 luctuosus is also common ; its fore wings are very long and project 

 beyond the abdomen. It is one of our largest crickets. 



