that it is often mistaken for a kind of tree-toad. 

 Heard near at hand it is singularly clear and almost 

 bell-like, though ventriloquial in its elusiveness and 

 difficult to locate, for as you approach, it ceases 

 and is taken up by another a short distance away. 

 Even when standing dired:Iy in front of it, it 

 appears to come from several directions. It was 

 only after prowling the woods with a lantern that 

 I discovered the identity of the sweet singer, a 

 small inse£t of a pale green hue, not over an inch 

 in length, looking like a sort of locust, though 

 classed with the crickets. The translucent wings 

 are of a delicate ivory-white and the antennae very 

 long. 



This cricket was hanging to the edge of a grape 

 leaf when the rays of the lantern fell upon him. 

 He perhaps took it for moonlight, for on a sudden 

 the wings were eredted until at right angles to the 

 body, and then, as it were automatically, and with 

 the precision of a pendulum, they moved to and 

 fro, partly crossing their bases and thus scraping 

 the veins of the middle portion — and the mysteri- 

 ous singer of the night stood revealed. 



The quality of the tone — the timbre — sug- 

 gests the sound made by rubbing the rim of a 



52 



