Evening star., 1948-09-13
This and That
By Charles E. Trace,Deu

Tive books of interest to nature lovers" to,
be issued this autumn, are "The Avian Egg"
by Alexis l. Romanoff, and THE Songs
Of Insects" by George w. Pierce.
The former will be put out by John Wiley
and Sons, Inc, of New York, at SIT. and the
book on insect songs by Harvard University
Press, at S..
Most people are content to know the size,
shape and color of a bird egg. They prob
ably won't loosen up for a SIT book.
As for insect song while the books price
is more reasonably, many persons find such
music" ungrateful to their ears Song, in
deed!" they would exclaim.
The point about insect song, however, is
that much of 1t is above the ear level as 1t
were, Of human beings
The music they make cannot be heard by
our ears.
to hear them at ali, and even then the
sounds must be set down merely as graphs.
Most of us will take our insects music on
lower sonic level.
That is we much prefer to hear them with
our own two ears.
Some odd persons like insect music. Many
look forward to the year 1858, when the
17-year locusts. as the cicadas are called, will
be with us once again.
The clamor the millions of them made had
a real music something to It, The sound of
surf on the shore was one of the things
the cicada music reminded one Of as the
happy creatures sang to the sun.
&** X
Insects are mostly noiseless, as far as most
of us can tell, but that Is where, no doubt
we are mistaken.
They sing supersonically according to the
scientists.
The noises they make are so high in pitch
that we cannot hear them.
Most of us have had experiences with per-
sons who cannot-or will not-hear low notes.
They say they cannot hear the person
with a low voice They insist that he
"mumbles" He does not humble, of course;
his voice is too low pitched for him
Many persons, especially older ones, do not
like modern electric monographs on account
of the bass
These listeners were brought up on the old
shrill acoustic monographs. The closer ap-
Proclamation of true sound values by the elec-
trical process strikes them as all wrong.
Some of the "hot bugs" or annual cicadas,
we hear of late summer have high-pitched
buzzes, carrying for long distances.
The sounds made by many insects are done
with wing and leg, so really cannot be called
voices" at all.
Nor can the sounds properly be called song" )"
Ordinarily, we think of song as singing, that
is done with the vocal apparatus.
Our songbirds are striking examples Of this.
They have marvellous song boxes and muscles.
In fact it is because they have such arrange
| ments that they are called "songbirds."
Even the crow Is classed as a songbird. not
because he is such a great singer. but simply
because he possesses, fundamentally the four
| sets of muscles which give the thrush and the
| mockingbird and other such vocal abilities.
1t viii be a new idea to many persons that
| the odd creatures of the back yard, commonly
called bugs" are singing silently, when all
time cannot hear note Ollt OF them.
Perhaps this old praying mantis, waiting by
| the back porch for his prey, his arms folded as
| If in PRAYER, is loudly cursing his i'll fortune
at letting some spider get away from him.
He may be using such language as never
| was heard on land or sea, and for very good
| reason-it Is vulnerable by ordinary ears
We hear the bees buzz thank heaven. They
| are within our range. But many living things
including the tiny midge-like creatures nying
around light bulbs, apparently have no voices
1t is happy thought that they. too, are
loudly singing praise for their brief life.