THE CIGALE 49 



and assailed together. Since then I have often been the 

 witness of similar assassinations. 



I have even seen the grasshopper, full of audacity, 

 launch itself in pursuit of the Cigale, who fled in 

 terror. So the sparrow-hawk pursues the skylark in the 

 open sky. But the bird of prey is less ferocious than 

 the insect ; it pursues a creature smaller than itself. The 

 locust, on the contrary, assails a colossus, far larger and 

 far more vigorous than its enemy ; yet the result is a 

 foregone conclusion, in spite of this disproportion. With 

 its powerful mandibles, like pincers of steel, the grass- 

 hopper rarely fails to eviscerate its captive, which, being 

 weaponless, can only shriek and struggle. 



The Cigale is an easy prey during its hours of som- 

 nolence. Every Cigale encountered by the ferocious 

 grasshopper on its nocturnal round must miserably 

 perish. Thus are explained those sudden squeaks of 

 anguish which are sometimes heard in the boughs during 

 the hours of the night and early morning, although the 

 cymbals have long been silent. The sea-green bandit 

 has fallen upon some slumbering Cigale. When I 

 wished to rear some green grasshoppers I had not far to 

 seek for the diet of my pensioners ; I fed them on Cigales, 

 of which enormous numbers were consumed in my 

 breeding-cages. It is therefore an established fact that 

 the green grasshopper, the false Cigale of the North, will 

 eagerly devour the true Cigale, the inhabitant of the Midi. 



But it is neither the sparrow nor the green grasshopper 

 that has forced the Cigale to produce such a vast number 

 of offspring. The real danger is elsewhere, as we shall 

 see. The risk is enormous at the moment of hatching, 

 and also when the egg is laid. 



6 



