THE SONGS OF THE GRASSHOPPERS. 117 
Fig. 2 a, female), prefers to sing in the night. His day- 
song is bzrwi, and lasts one-third of a second; the night- 
song consists of a repetition—ordinarily eight times—of a 
note which sounds like tehw. This is repeated at the rate 
of five in three-quarters of a Fig.2a. 
second, making each note one- 
half as long as that of the day. 
The song of the common 
Meadow-grasshopper ( Orcheli- 
mum vulgare) is more compli- 
cated. Commencing with és, it 
changes almost instantly into a | 
trill of zr: at first there is a | 
crescendo movement which | 
reaches its volume in half a sec- 
ond; the trill is then sustained 
for a period varying from one 
to twenty seconds, and closes 
suddenly with p. This strain 
is followed by a series of stac- 
cato notes, sounding like jip; 
they are one-eighth of a second in length, and are produced 
at one-half second intervals. The staccato notes and the 
trill alternate ad libitum. The night-song differs from that 
of the day simply in its slower movement ; the pitch of both 
is at B flat, two octaves above middle C. 
A conical-headed grasshopper ( Conocephalus robustus) , 
found near the seashore in the southern part of New England, 
makes the salt marshes resound with its incessant, shrill din. 
The resemblance of its song to that of the harvest-fly is quite 
striking; at a distance, the note seems to be perfectly uni- 
form; close at hand, one can hear it rising and falling rhyth- 
mically, two and a half times a second, accompanied by a 
loud droning noise. 3 ; 
There are numerous kinds of jumping grasshoppers which 
stridulate in the daytime only. ‘They do this by the aid of 



b b 
