Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/422

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��Popular Science Monthly

���© Brown and Dawson

The tree cricket makes its music by rasping its wings one over the other about seventy times a minute

��tures, everybody exclaims in sur- prise, "Why, that is something I never saw before; I never knew there was such a thing in existence. Is it a new pest ? Is it something to be dreaded?"

Instead of something to be dread- ed it is one of the nature lover's de- lights. Such singing insects seem to fit harmoniously into a summer night, and when one's temperament becomes attuned to the sounds there is no more charming, natural music in the world. The Japanese have the right point of view. They hold tea parties in the fields, and between their sips of tea and bits of conversa- tion they listen to the calls and songs of such insects.

Every student of insects knows that the term "singing" is used figuratively. It might be more truly described as fiddling because it is made by rasping one wing over the other in a rapid movement. This is well shown in the accom- panying illustration.

��The Incessant Night Song of the Snowy Tree Cricket

FROM early sum- mer to the time of frost, we hear a cheery, insistent night song that everybody knows. But only persistent and careful students become familiar with the insect that trills the song. From the grasses, trees and shrubs comes this incessant music, represented by Vernon L. Kel- logg in the letters: ' T-r-r — r-e-e ; t-r-r — r-e-e." This is re- peated about seven- ty times a minute without pause or variation.

Whenever a per- sistent student of insects obtains one of these singing, or rather fiddling crea-

��The Soldiers of Dress

���The dress of the natives of New Guinea consists principally of broad stripes of white paint and necklaces of small bones

��New Guinea Do Not in Khaki

THE natives of New Guinea are still classed as savages, although many of them have comfortable homes, clustered into vil- lages.

The dress of the males consists main- ly of necklaces made of human and pigs' bones. The war- riors make them- selves fierce with broad dashes of white paint on their bronze bodies and on their clubs. The bracelets below the knees of the warrior on the right of the accompanying pho- tograph are strung with pigs' bones, probably used as am- ulets, since the pig is much beloved.

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