Show Out of Doors in the West Sketches of Natural History in the Rocky Mountain Plateau Edited by J. H. Professor of Nature Study in the University of Utah September's Field Music A. Among Bird Singers B. Among Insect Fiddlers Toward the southern part of the Rocky Mountain the goldfinch sings in early At in Pine and at St. and neighboring places in southern Utah I found the goldfinches singing melodiously in the trees during the first two weeks of What the Goldfinch Mingling with the flocks of-goldfinches were an almost equal as I of pine near relatives which are called also pine Both male and female say the female Using a high the male often descending to an alto The goldfinch frequently says in a drawn-out that resembles the of one of the It is from this note that the goldfinch gets its name for The continuous chorus of bird music from these litle yellow and black singers was at times so many of them singing at Warblers Sing Among these goldfinch the yellow warbler occasionally and the western yellow throat and the Virginia warbler sometimes The rarer warblers do not sing much in the Once I located and had a good view of the Calaveras bright yellow with distinct chestnut crown patch on the head and olive green and yellowish In the mountains near Pinto I encountered a number of the Townsend small birds with black and yellow bright yellow sides with tail ripped with wing with two white back These birds were in They went from tree to tree in little Bush Tits Mingling freely with the warblers were numerous flocks of the lead-colored The song of the bush-tits was the queerest little titter I have yet heard they were very lively in their conversational and constantly kept up their little sprightly racket as they moved quickly about and from tree to They explored every limb and and would sometimes cling upside down on branches while they examined the under hey seemed so so so full of that T followed them from one grove of pinyon pines' to The birds of a feather I could see no difference whereby to distinguish the male from the female all flocked no stragglers remaining behind after the flock had passed White Crowns White crowned mi- w grating in flocks from the to more southerly f sing continuously among and bushes of the have a canary-like Kf one of the best to be heard the whole sparrow not so loud and ringing as in but is complex and At Kaysville this ber I encountered them not very house cats playing havoc aia these pretty creatures which so The cats English sparrows and sought beautiful and trustful cats should be done away The Bullfrog's L I might say to teachers schools that when m-opens m August or early we can still hear at eST ing many insect musicians in the There of in the deep bass He seems I'm wisest frog That ever lived in this muddy W All know I often say Which means that I'm a mop Black Cricket a jj Some of the black described in the text arc chirp away in the and fine orchestra these little fiddlers are We get so y timed to the sound that we nofi-j rather when it ceases than pj it when full listen to this music is to child as there ever a try boy who did not feel that music of the crickets was into the fabric of his dreams The Western Tree K The insect that sings from trees on summer evenings trilling chirp after monotonous but peaceful 1 pleasant making a lullaby is the western tree J which is also a member of tj grasshopper After a lo following up their I I have sometimes a pale roo backed about two-thirds j an inch that makes this very I have not beeH thus to get a look the various stages of J life but have found the adult in trees The eastern informs s the tree of delicate whitish green A Ve may nave nere 5 Lies to raspberry eanes by its Es have been The fe- lays the eggs in the jie above the hatch in the The should be burned be-the hatching takes True Insect are several other singers making not with their but with instruments and musicians attention may called with correctly maintained noise which we hear insects is no but a very occasioned by the air which IE within and being makes a certain noise again and thus it some keep a humming or as others make a as with a certain long as the He the whose drum is IK magnifying a trivial vibration is said that American Mows and pastures in August with the teeming chorus wings and constitute a heritage of the new for the old world these daytime best insect as far writer is the called the His jU midsummer vibrates clearness from many but yu cannot easily We propose to speak only of some of the grasshopper Le Grasshopper's of the grasshopper fealty an instrumental usually brought about dur-Irest by the rubbing of the thigh against the edge of These musical Ke are confined to the male the tunes sung are to be love lye meadow to be a future is If m green the outlet bis body showing clearly the filmy His mu- of a J sPot his just fo thorax the collar worn by the whole of them to prevent the breaking necks in their headlong As he sings strange tremor seems to have taken possession of the the edges of the wings seem blurred and indistinct in the rapid and then follow a few convulsive resulting in the strain zip and the strain is answered from numerous sources on every So runs William Hamilton Gibson's account of this grasshopper day Hawthorne speaks of most musical of all the song of the coming in full choir upon the He even Locust Rocky Mountain Locust v Rocky Mountain Locust different stages of growth of laying After that if moonlight could be heard it would sound just like the cone-headed Gibson describes as imp of that only by special favor discloses his noisy resources in the day He usually to file his saw outside your window at the approach of In the or short-horned the act as the viol to which the insect's leg performs the office of a a locust his he is apt to assume the attitude of the first among my pictured trio the shank of his leg being drawn within a groove beneath the evidently made for With an air of comical solemnity the leg m is now raised and lowered with more or less regular and continued being pressed close against the firm edge of the wing by which contact the fiddling is Seventeen-Year While the yellow winged grasshopper flies up with a loud or the locust says from his place in the the seventeen-year locust the which is not really a locust but a sings from the sagebrush in a note so high and so fine that some people's ears fail to notice The we do not have the nearest relatives of the eastern katydids are our little green tree-crickets mentioned How Insects Many of the grasshoppers aro industrious but none of them really When at rest certain species draw the hind legs up and down across the wing so that numerous fine little ridges on the main joint of the leg the femur are rasped across a thick ridge or vein that runs along the outer surface of the wing or outside Others make their shrill music while flying by striking or rubbing the upper and under wings One of our large creamy wings makes a clacking noise in this The chirping sound of the produced by the male is likewise supposed to be a. love The sound is-produced by the friction of the upper wings over each An inflated coarsely occurs at the base of each upper By rasping or scraping the file-like spot of the under wing over the same part of the wing above a vibrant note the cricket's song is given For Boys and The boy or girl must smile and the merry will laugh at this absurd Grasshoppers can't and we remember this as soon as we see that in this picture they seem to be One is playing on a concertina j and that is also though the grasshopper has' a fiddle of his own and can play a sort of tune on as shall As to that fellow carrying a he is also very but the grasshopper has a rake on his hind legs to help him to and enough himself a fellow that chews tobacco and takes what does not belong to But if these little rogues could don't you think they would be giving us the old this by and For many a farmer in the west has had his entire crop devoured by the when he could do nothing to stay their devouring The worst thief of the lot the one that helps himself to almost every plant that grows is a dusty looking kind called the Rocky Mountain It is shown in the large Notice the two fore how straight they and the two hind wings that look like and fold up just like fans beneath the fore or upper The upper wings are stiff and not used in their use is simply to cover and protect the flying rear wings hence the upper wings are called wing They are so straight that this whole order of insects are called the straight wings the In means and means By combining these two words we get a straight for the plural change to You can observe how straight the wing covers are and how prettily folded are the flying if you will catch and examine a grasshopper They live mainly in the grass and they travel by hopping as well as by A little girl once said thought would be a better name but we couldn't change the name even if we should If you wish to see a pretty look at the veins of the rear wings with a hand It was said above that don't and this is true of all for none of them possesses a Many of them make nad some of especially among the straight winged make musical They do this by rubbing the under and upper wings together while or by drawing the largest or front joint of the hind leg across the edge of the outer They or rather in this way in order to signal to each Hence grasshoppers can and they have The ears of the grasshopper are not its but on its A nearly round spot on the body just above the place where the last pair of legs comes is the It has a thin covering the Under a strong lens a black central spot shows where the nerves of hearing ears' of crickets are on the second large joint of the fore legs that on the Mosquitoes with their wings and hear with their or All' insects except the x hear by means of fine hairs on the Grasshoppers can Their large sometimes nearly round but more often are easy to These if ob- served with a are seen to be made up of scores of single all pressed together till they form a large bundle of six-sided These eyes see all but not very distinctly and not very In the middle of the forehead between the bases of the antennae there is very simple Thus the grass- hopper has three Most insects have only two eyes times and most spiders have eight eyes as well as eight Count the legs of the and note the parts of each Grasshoppers can though they have no The feelers and certain of the mouth parts detect Grasshoppers breathe by means of little holes one on each ring or segment of the Count the segments and locate the spiracles with a How would you drown a Grasshoppers can they have two pairs of which work two pairs of about the mouth an upper and a lower and a sort of They chew their food and keep a good deal of it on hand to spit out as a means of defense when seized by an Grasshoppers can that is why the hind legs are so much longer and stronger than the Measure how many times his own length a grasshopper or cricket can and compare it with- our own female lays eggs in hard often in and alfalfa If a harrow is drawn over alfalfa lands in early many of the eggs will be exposed to rain- and frost and will be Or hungry beetles and birds will eat the Some grasshoppers lay only three or four but most kinds lay fifty or and some lay several Some lay in others in others in the eggs hatch in or Most of the adults die in but a few live The young when first works it sway to the top of the When first it is covered with a thin which it sheds' to free its feelers and mouth Then it eats and Its skin soon hardens and gets too tight for it stops' eating and remains quiet for a few hours its old skin splits down the back and it wriggles out clothed in a new This happens four or five till the hopper becomes full The only skeleton a grasshopper has is this hard coat on the outside of its |