STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
407 
GRAPE. LEAVES. 
every reader. And this song is thus continued without the slightest 
variation and without any cessation, I think, the whole night 
through. I however have sometimes heard it at the first com¬ 
mencement of its evening serenade uttering three syllables resem¬ 
bling the words treat , treat, two; treat , treat , two —as though the 
songster was supplicating a libation for his voiceless female mate 
as well as himself—a longer pause following each third note. 
This prelude is probably performed in limbering or otherwise 
adjusting his organs, preparatory to performing the regular carol, 
which is struck into in a few moments. 
It merits, in passing, to be remarked, that whilst the song ol 
the common cricket of the eastern continent aids in producing 
sleep and has been so much valued on account of this property 
that it has in some countries been made an article of traffic, and 
inclosed in cages is placed in the dormitory, the song of our 
flower cricket has exactly the opposite effect. Occasionally, from 
vines growing in front of the window, one of these little musicians 
will find his way into the bed-chamber, when, as Dr. Harris 
observes, his incessant and loud shrilling will effectually banish 
sleep. Perhaps the lodger out of all patience at last gets up and 
makes for the spot from whence the annoyance proceeds; but the 
song abruptly ceases with his approach. He however fumbles 
around in the dark, beating upon the wall high and low, and 
probably encountering an unexpected number of chairs and wash- 
stands, till he flatters himself he has destroyed his tormenter or 
has at least frightened him into silence for the rest of the night. 
Then returning to his pillow and adjusting himself again for 
sleep, he is able to exult in the sweet stillness that pervades the 
apartment, for a moment only, before the same execrable creaking 
breaks forth again as shrill and vigorous as before. 
Many persons have noticed the catydid when singing, so far as 
to see that it is by rubbing its hind legs against the outer sides of 
its wing covers that its stridulation is produced. In the cricket, 
however, the hind legs arc much shorter, and here we find that it 
is not by them but by raising its wing covers slightly so as to rub 
the under surface of one of them against the inner edge of the 
other that its song is caused. As the flower crickets have long 
slender hind legs similar to those of the catydids, we might sus- 
