[Illustration: THE CHIRP OF THE GRASSHOPPER.]

The music of the insects has already been alluded to, and everyone will
agree with Gilbert White that "not undelightful is the ceaseless hum, to
him who musing walks at noon." The entomologist has laboured hard to
show us that the insect has no voice, and that the "drowsy hum" is made
by the wings; a fact which, being beyond all cavil, puts to the blush
the old-world story of Plutarch, who tells us that when Terpander was
playing upon the lyre, at the Olympic games, and had enraptured his
audience to the highest pitch of enthusiasm a string of his instrument
broke, and a _cicada_ or grasshopper perched on the bridge supplied by
its voice the loss of the string and saved the fame of the musician. To
this day in Surinam the Dutch call them lyre-players. If there is any
truth in the story, the grasshopper then had powers far in advance of
his degenerated descendants; for now the grasshopper--like the
cricket--has a chirp consisting of three notes in rhythm, always forming
a triplet in the key of B.

[Illustration]
[Illustration: FLY BUZZING.]

[Illustration]
[Illustration: DUCK.]

Gardiner, on the authority of Dr. Primatt, states that, to produce the
sound it makes, the house-fly must make 320 vibrations of its wings in
a second; or nearly 20,000 if it continues on the wing a minute. The
sound is invariably on the note F in the first space. The music of a
duck's note is given in the annexed score.