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.