The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1886-08-20

breeze and sways against my face, and
as / look up beneath the foliage my eve
is arrested by a small but sharply de-
fined shadow plainly transmitted
through the sunlit leaf close by-a
shadow rendered all the more sug-
gestive by the projecting tips of the
two slender antenn@ exploring so GIN
gerly out beyond. Zip, zip, zip, zip,
se-e-e-e-e-e." The gauzy minstrel has
endured the limit of his silence, and
now again takes up his strain, and is
almost Immediately answered from nu-
merous mysterious sources on every
side. But he has evidently caught a
glimpse of my unguarded movement,
for the "high-elbowed grig' kicks off
suddenly from his perch and pitches
hap-hazard into space, alighting upon
swaying stem of timothy-grass. and
at length straddling with an air of
comical solemnity upon spray of cap
sella, where he seems to gain conf
dence, and permits full view of him
self. This is the common diurnal
meadow grasshopper (OrcheIimum vul-
gare). He is pellucid green creature,
with the outline of his body readily
seen through the tilmy wings. He is
about an inch in length, and the long
legs suggest the fragile consistency of
glass, and one involuntarily wonders
how these slender members could have
survived intact such reckless gymnas-
tics as they are continually called upon
to sustain as well as instigate. Turn
ing upon his perch, he brings to view
his ''glassichord," or shrilling organ,
upon his back-a glass-like spot upon
his wings just behind the thorax, or
what might appear to the facetiously
inclined as an exceedingly uncomfort-
able-looking collar. Even as we take
our first glimpse OF this diminutive,
filmy taboret, strange tremor seems
to have taken possession of the insect,
the edges of the wings seem blurred
and indistinct in the rapid vibratory
and then follow few quick,
convulsive efforts, resulting in the
strain already described, and
whose multitudinous repetition on every
hand so saturatcs the quivering ether.
For this is perhaps the most omnipresent
meadow sound of the New England
summer noon; certainly the most
prominent. And yet, singularly enough,
few of our entomologists seem to have
discovered the fact, even associating
the song with ''evening gloom" and
''shady place" under which
my minstrel is comparatively silent.
On cloudy day, indeed, our fields
emulate the downs of Britain, and are
almost still, our present musician
among the rest. He is n slower of the
sum-" and revcls in midsummer tropic
heats.
There is another mysterious dweller
in the sunny meadow, who claims our
recognition in positive and rasping ac-
cents, tsip, tSip, tsip, tsip," q continu-
6us, rapid, exasperating stridulation, a
reiterated noisy parody, Stimulating the
prelude of the meadow grasshopper al
ready described, always foreshadowing
some musical feat that shall distance
his little rival, but never getting any
further than brag. This is the loud
est and most peremptory challenge we
shall meet in the entire meadow, in its
very grain and fibre suggestive OF in
ordinate egotism.
After having once discussed him, and
separated his green individuality from
the surrounding herbage. and fully sat
istied yourself that his long wings are
actual insect membranes and not q
brace of abbreviated blades of timothy
grass, it will interest you to observe
him closely. This insect is known as
the "cone-headed grasshopper" Como
cephdIas enSiger), and may be fittingly
called the clown of all this heyday.
With what an air of solemn mock
gravity he straddles around among the
heritage, keeping you ever in the field
of his view, with the jet-black pupil of
the one white eye turned in your direc-
ton! 1t matters not what mis- position,
that pupil is necessarily riveted upon
you, travelling to the upper or the lower
edge of the eye, as the case may be.
And If perchance he now rears up and
faces you, what was true of one eye is
now true of both, and you are confront
ed with cross-eyed grin that brings
your long suppressed laugh to final
outburst, which for the time being dis
concerts the merry-andrew.
Now he confronts you, shows on"
lifts one hind-leg like u mast high in
the air, wriggling his long series of
terminal toes as if to simulate PEN
nant, his slender antenn@ thrown back
from the apex of his long bowsprit like
jib-stays. And have not seen similar
CLASSY bulrs-eyes or light-holes in the
prows of ocean craftp Yes; and look!
now the machinery begins to work, you
can almost hear the propeller rs the
hulk begins to sway and tremble, and
the spinning engine lets off its noisy
calliope, as already described. For II
is fact that in no other grasshopper is
the sound of the shrilling mechanism
SO plainly perceptible beneath its song,
q suggestion of axles, cogs, and cams,
all the worse for wear. All through
this mimctic exhibition our clown has
been accomplishing the feat of looking
cross-eyed over the back of his head.
He would seem to afford a perfect
though an exaggerated embodiment OF
the simile of Cicero that 'the eyes are
like sentinels, and occupy the highest
place in the body" Nothing escapes
the sentry of this watch-tower, it is GER
tain. with its two goggles suggesting
prospecting windows in the summit OF