, a slender, weakly
creature; its colour very pale, indeed almost white, as is natural in
view of its nocturnal habits. In handling it one is afraid of crushing
it between the fingers. It lives an aerial existence; on shrubs and
bushes of all kinds, on tall herbage and grasses, and rarely descends to
the earth. Its song, the pleasant voice of the calm, hot evenings from
July to October, commences at sunset and continues for the greater part
of the night.

This song is familiar to all Provencals; for the least patch of thicket
or tuft of grasses has its group of instrumentalists. It resounds even
in the granaries, into which the insect strays, attracted thither by the
fodder. But no one, so mysterious are the manners of the pallid Cricket,
knows exactly what is the source of the serenade, which is often, though
quite erroneously, attributed to the common field-cricket, which at this
period is silent and as yet quite young.

The song consists of a _Gri-i-i, Gri-i-i_, a slow, gentle note, rendered
more expressive by a slight tremor. Hearing it, one divines the extreme
tenuity and the amplitude of the vibrating membranes. If the insect is
not in any way disturbed as it sits in the low foliage, the note does
not vary, but at the least noise the performer becomes a ventriloquist.
First of all you hear it there, close by, in front of you, and the next
moment you hear it over there, twenty yards away; the double note
decreased in volume by the distance.

You go forward. Nothing is there. The sound proceeds again from its
original point. But no--it is not there; it is to the left now--unless
it is to the right--or behind.... Complete confusion! It is impossible
to detect, by means of the ear, the direction from which the chirp
really comes. Much patience and many precautions will be required before
you can capture the insect by the light of the lantern. A few specimens
caught under these conditions and placed in a cage have taught me the
little I know concerning the musician who so perfectly deceives our
ears.

The wing-covers are both formed of a dry, broad membrane, diaphanous and
as fine as the white skin on the outside of an onion, which is capable
of vibrating over its whole area. Their shape is that of the segment of
a circle, cut away at the upper end. This segment is bent at a right
angle along a strong longitudinal nervure, and descends on the outer
side in a flap which encloses the insect's flank when in the attitu