Travels in a Tree-top 



19 



It was not until noon that the wood and 

 open fields became silent or nearly so, for the 

 red-eye came continually, and, whether insedl- 

 hunting in the tree or on the wing, it seemed 

 never to cease its singing, or querulous cry, 

 which more aptly describes its utterance. To 

 hear this sound throughout a long summer day 

 is depressing, particularly if you hear nothing 

 else, for the steady hum of inse£l-life hardly 

 passes for sound. It was only when I lis- 

 tened for it that I was aware that millions of 

 tiny creatures were filling the air with a hum- 

 ming that varied only as the light breeze car- 

 ried it away or brought it nearer and clearer 

 than before. There is a vast difference be- 

 tween absolute and comparative or apparent 

 silence. The former is scarcely ever a con- 

 dition of the open country unless during a 

 still, cold winter night, and never of one of 

 our ordinary woodland trafts. We do find it, 

 however, in the cedar swamps and pine-land, 

 even during summer. I have often stood in 

 *^ the pines" of Southern New Jersey and 

 tried to detedl some sound other than that 

 of my own breathing, but in vain. Not 

 a twig stirred. The dark waters of the pools 

 were motionless ; even the scattered clouds 



