VOCAL £ INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC OF INSECTS. 151 



melody with a row of round knobs that run along the lower end 

 of a raised edge on the inner surface of the usually flattened 

 hinder thighs, which they rub briskly, like the cranks of an 

 engine, to and fro, over the raised veins on the fore wings or 

 elytra that resound like a violin and sound out like a musical 

 box ; their music can be rarely reproduced when they have been 

 dried on the setting-board, as the hind legs are wont to break 

 off, but it is always possible to examine the inner surface of one 

 with a magnifying-glass, and ascertain whether the row of knobs 

 is present and the species a performer. Yersin attempted to set 

 the grasshopper tunes to musical notation, but Mr. McLachlan 

 mentioned when the score was played it did not confer much 

 delight. Hearing this, I gave it to a musical lady, who asked 

 many questions, and then rattled off on the piano what did not 

 sound like the songs of the grasshoppers ; perhaps she would 

 have succeeded better with the violin. As a rule the male 

 grasshoppers are the musicians, and after one has sent forth 

 its trill it lowers one or both of its hind legs so as to expose one 

 or other of the two cavities situated on either side at the base of 

 the hind body or abdomen that are its ears, containing a mem- 

 brane or ear-drum, on which are acoustic horny pieces ; to them 

 ganglions are attached, whence nerves run to the third large 

 nervous knot of the body, which is bigger, as Johannes Muller 

 remarks, than the grasshopper's brain. These ears are also 

 possessed by the females, who 'are appreciators of grasshopper 

 music, though it is not alone for music they are designed, for the 

 weasel- snouted Truxalis nasuta that stalks, gaunt and silent in 

 the sunshine, has its ear-cavities open, and those of the tuneful 

 grasshoppers are closed like a cowrie to catch the innermost 

 feeling. 



It is not every year that the grasshoppers have a jubilee and 

 celebrate their harvest festival. In 1875 their music rang out 

 merrily over the grassy slopes at Guildford, and later on it 

 would be hard to find any nearer than Box Hill. No doubt the 

 damp weather was concerned. 1879 was remarkably dismal and 

 damp, and this was a time when spots were few on the sun. 

 Again, in 1881 and 1882, the silver writing of slug and snail 

 covered leaf and garden-seat, and Helix virgata, common on arid 

 pastures, everywhere multiplied ; the next year, which, according 



