And never does the hornet look greater, the king and tyrant of its kind, than on these occasions. It swings down among them with a sound that may be heard loud and distinct above the universal hum, and settles on the flowers, but capriciously, staying {132} but a moment or two in one place, then moving to another, the meaner insects all expeditiously making room for it. And after tasting a few flowers here and there it takes its departure. These large-sized October hornets are all females, wanderers from ruined homes, in search of sheltered places where, foodless and companionless, and in a semi-torpid condition, each may live through the four dreary months to come. In March the winter of their discontent will be over, and they will come forth with the primrose and sweet violet to be founders and mothers of new colonies--the brave and splendid hornets of another year; builders, fighters, and foragers in the green oak-woods; a strenuous, hungry and thirsty people, honey-drinkers, and devourers of the flesh of naked white grubs, and caterpillars, black and brown and green and gold, and barred and quaintly-coloured swift aerial flies. {133} CHAPTER VII Great and greatest among insects--Our feeling for insect music--Crickets and grasshoppers--_Cicada anglica_--_Locusta viridissima_--Character of its music--Colony of green grasshoppers--Harewood Forest--Purple emperor--Grasshoppers' musical contests--The naturalist mocked--Female _viridissima_--Over-elaboration in the male--Habits of female--Wooing of the male by the female.