42 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



rejoicing. Never was politician making his electoral 

 progress favoured with a bigger charge. To prevent 

 damage to my windows the sashes were all left open. 

 The two engines of detonation were placed at the foot of 

 the plane-trees before my door, no precautions being 

 taken to mask them. The Cigales singing in the 

 branches above could not see what was happening 

 below. 



There were six of us, spectators and auditors. We 

 waited for a moment of relative quiet. The number of 

 singers was counted by each of us, as well as the volume 

 and rhythm of the song. We stood ready, our ears 

 attentive to the aerial orchestra. The box exploded with 

 a clap of thunder. 



No disturbance ensued above. The number of per- 

 formers was the same, the rhythm the same, the 

 volume the same. The six witnesses were unanimous : 

 the loud explosion had not modified the song of the 

 Cigales in the least. The second box gave an identical 

 result. 



What are we to conclude from this persistence of the 

 orchestra, its lack of surprise or alarm at the firing of a 

 charge ? Shall we conclude that the Cigale is deaf ? I 

 am not going to venture so far as that ; but if any one 

 bolder than myself were to make the assertion I really 

 do not know what reasons I could invoke to disprove it. 

 I should at least be forced to admit that it is very hard 

 of hearing, and that we may well apply to it the homely 

 and familiar phrase : to shout like a deaf man. 



When the blue-winged cricket, basking on the pebbles 

 of some country footpath, grows deliciously intoxicated 

 with the heat of the sun and rubs its great posterior 



