INSTRUMENT OF GNAT. 221 



the Xamtippes of antiquity, which is equally applicable both to 

 scolding and to musical matrons of the present day. "Happy," 

 says Zenachus the Bhodian, 



" Happy the cicadas' lives, 

 Since they all have noiseless wives!" 



The so called "Horn" or "Trumpet of the Gnat/' would seem 

 no wind instrument at all ; its buzz, or hum, as well as that of 

 other two-winged flies, appearing, says Kirby,* to be produced by 

 friction of the base of the wings against the chest. This con- 

 clusion would seem, however, scarcely to be reconciled with the 

 fact remarked by Rennie,t that they sometimes, especially 

 towards autumn, fly in silence, although, when flying, the base 

 of the wings must of necessity rub against the chest. 



" The roving bee proclaims aloud 

 Her flight by vocal wings." 



So says the poet ; and, in support of the accuracy as well as 

 elegance of the dictum, he has the testimony of that careful 

 naturalist Swammerdam, who opines that her humming pro- 

 ceeds from the wings alone, especially the small ineinbranaceous 

 pair at the shoulders, when played upon by air propelled 

 from the subjacent air-tubes or spiracles, aided by certain 

 adjacent cavities which open wide apertures under the wings. 

 That the wings alone do not, however, produce the bee's hum, 

 seems sufficiently proved by an experiment of Hunter's, 

 wherein he found that after its wings were cut ott' the poor 



* Introduction to Entomology. t Insect Miscellanies. 



