St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-12
FAMILIAR SOUNDS.

We all know the gentle hum of the
hive bee, and the louder sound made
by it's relative, the humble, or, rather,
humble bee; only let us remember
that the last-named is connected
with hum, land not with humility"
Then, again, we have the beetles
''drowsy hum, rightly, indeed, called
''drowsy," for che large beetles which
produce the sound rise from the
earth at dusk and fly in the twilight
at night time, and the low lullaby,
added to the influence of the hour,
soothed the poets mind. OF a diff
ferent nature and associated with
different ideas is the sound called
1.-The death watch" a ticking like
that of a watch, heard behind old
wainscots, and superstitiously
thought to be the harbinger of death.
1t is produced by at least two
species of wood-boring beetles of the
genius Anobium, which tap the
wood with their heads and mandi-
bles.
You much have started up as you
sat on the porch at evening time,
or even after you had settled yourself
for sleep at night at the ''sissing,"
hum" or whatever you call it, Of
the truculent mosquito or gnat, and
there is no need to repeat New Jer-
sey stories about brass bands in
connection with it, for the actual
sound is enough in itself. The drone
of the blue-bottle, sonorouS as Ital-.
ian bagpipes, is familiar, and COM
miseration is due to the philosopher
who is endeavoring to formulate
new recipe for keeping ones temper,
if this enemy of thrifty housewives
is sounding it's own praises in the
library. In the boarding house din
ing room, when the screen door has
Inadvertently" been left open, one
may we'll wish that we could dine
without the accompaniment OF the
buzz of the flies. What must it be
in Egypt, still famous for this plague
at least, or on the banks of the
Amazon, where Wallace tells us they
hum in thousands all day long.
The cockroaches, cicadas, locusts,
grasshoppers and crickets bring us
to the very conservatory of insect mu--
sic The giant cockroach" plays the
castanets in the cupboard or behind the
panels of the sitting room, and makes
the children look at each other with
questioning eyes, as memory calls up
some story of "spooks" AS we ram
BILE on the outskirts of the woods on a
broiling summc''s day we suddenly
hear a whir and buzz which startle us.
A black object darts from tree. We
follow it's flight and swiftly run to
the spot where it alighted. Out bursts
the sound again, like a battery of fife
and drum corps, and quick eye will
soon catch sight of the single musician
"a cicada-commonly called a locust
who is fling away as if his sole bust
ness in life was to lead a regiment in
the last great charge of battle.
LOCUST AND CRICKET.
You may be walking by the roadside
when with a click like the cooking of
a gun up starts creature with green
ish-brown upper wings and yellowish
underwings, and legs stretched out be-
hind. 1t drops a little distance away
and off goes the sound like the crack
ing of distant musketry. 1t is a true
locust. AS you pass through the fields
brown with withered grass, hundreds
of dusky yellowish-brown grasshop-
pers spring up with a snap, and then
settle down to tattoo" So wonder
fully confused are these sounds of the
fields that you had better wait until
evening. Then you may hear a low
piping sound like the sharpening of a
saw. 1t is cricket. Only an ear ac-
customed to detect differences in tune
and tone, like that of the conductor of
an orchestra, can catch it when the
grasshoppers are in full chorus; but in
the evening you can hear it clearly.
little later, also, you can. if you will,
sympathize with the melancholy MOLE
cricket, who complains of his sad lot