Among the most efficient and most celebrated performers of all on these instruments of percussion are the “Katydids” of North America. The sounds they produce are said to form the words “Katy-did, O-she-did, Katy-did-she-did.” The first of these extraordinary concerts is heard about mid-July; by mid-August they are in full song. By others the sounds have been likened to those produced by the slow turning of a child’s rattle, ending in a sudden jerk; and this prolonged rattling, which is peculiar to the male, is always answered by a single, sharp “chirp” or “tschick” from one or more females, who produce the sound by a sudden upward jerk of the wings. Pride of place, however, among insect performances of this kind must surely be awarded to the Cicadas, which are notoriously the noisiest members of the Insect world, far eclipsing the shrill calls of the Grasshoppers and even of the Crickets. Darwin remarks that the noise they made could “be plainly heard on board the _Beagle_ when anchored off Brazil at a quarter of a mile from the shore; and Captain Hancock says it can be heard at a distance of a mile. The Greeks formerly kept, and the Chinese now keep, these insects in cages for the sake of their song, so that it must be pleasing to the ears of some men.” Only the males sing, the females being completely dumb, and this prompted the Greek poet Xenarchus to make the now famous remark, “Happy the Cicadas’ lives, for they have voiceless wives.” Another naturalist, Riley, says: “The general noise, on approaching the infested woods, is a combination of that of a distant threshing-machine and a distant frog-pond.” Another species, _Tympanoterpes gigas_, also Brazilian, is said to make a noise equal to the whistle of a locomotive: recalling that of a nest of young snakes, or young birds, when disturbed—a sort of scream. They can also produce a chirp like that of a Cricket and a very loud, shrill screech prolonged for fifteen or twenty seconds, gradually increasing and decreasing in force.