November 5.—1 often think that the acid test of a good observer is to hear a sound at dead of night and be able to deduce from such "blind" evidence, not only the identity of the creature making the sound, but the reason why the sound was made. I am not thinking of the hoot of the Owl, the croak of the frog, or the "Kraak" of a passing Night Heron: I am trying to conjure up in the imagination such tiny little sounds as the squeak of a mouse, the twitter of a Sparrow, the chirp of an insect, or any similar small noise which would never be heard in the din of the day, but which strikes the ear like a bugle note in the eerie hours of darkness. Among all such sounds there is one which stands out very clearly in my memory....the excited shriek of a, Cicada so often heard on sleepless summer nights....a sort of muffled scream that Starts in a high pitch and quickly fades away; 1 have tried to fit in the facts to many possible explanations, but the true one has only just come to my notice. The Cicada sleeping peacefully on a branch high up in a tree has an enemy unknown to most of us: it is a grasshopper which can climb
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