A grasshopper sat chirping in the branches of a tree. A fox heard her and, thinking what a dainty morsel she would make, tried to get her down by a trick. Standing below in full view, he praised her song in the most flattering terms and begged her to descend, saying he wished to meet the owner of so beautiful a voice.
The grasshopper was not to be taken in. She replied, "You are very much mistaken, my dear sir, if you imagine I am going to come down. I keep well out of the way of you and your kind ever since the day I saw numbers of grasshoppers' wings strewn about the entrance to a fox's earth."