AND DISTRIBUTE INSECT VARIETY. 17 



curtain of opal grey sky, from which stood out sharply the 

 long- willow rows fring-ing the opposite bank, the neighbouring 

 farm, and herded cow. 



"Ella si sta pur com' aspr' Alpe a I'aura." 



As the heat increased, the man who was deepening the 

 torrent bed with an antique ladle, having successively divested 

 himself of his coat, shirt, and inexpressibles, now pushed in to 

 moor his punt at the sedgy brink ; and eventually, fairly over- 

 come with the fierce noontide, lay down to ponder while the 

 river fretted on ironically over its stones, whirling away to 

 dreamland. Suddenly I fancied I heard a frog quacking in a 

 l)ush at hand. And then again came the sound Pip ! 2M^ • 

 Turning over the brittle boughs, which have an unpleasant 

 fashion of breaking off short, and leaving you to the mercy of 

 anything; from being taken into custody, to the shotted blunder- 

 buss of an infuriated peasant, I turned up a drowsy Cicada on a 

 damp spray, who was attuning his lyre to the stray glints that 

 crept in among the dense soft foliage. 



But can this be the Cicada of one^s school days? I exclaimed. 

 It is nothing like a '' Grasshopper," as elegant writers such as 

 Pope and Dryden maintain ; nor does it seem as if it would 

 " hop,'''' as Wordsworth and Goethe would make out. No, it 

 is not a " Tree Hopper." Cowley said it " danced." No, I 

 don't think it dances. And it is not a Cricket, as another wise- 

 acre, a German, has it ! Nor a Leaf -cricket with a curly tail, as 

 La Fontaine illustrates it ! It used to turn its eyes and wink 

 at St. Franciscus ; but alas ! its optics have become immovable. 

 Well, here is my pocket Virgil and the explanation. " These 

 insects differ essentially from our Grasshoppers; being found in 

 warm climates alone, they have not, indeed, any English name. 

 Their habit, noticed in the text of sitting on trees, would alone 

 make a distinction. (Hem !) In form they are more round 

 and short than our Grasshopper ; they make a much louder 

 noise, which begins when the sun grows hot and continues till 

 it sets. Their wings have silvery streaks, and are marked with 

 brown ; the inner pair of twice the length of the outer — (hem !) — 

 and more variegated." Well, but these are Lord Byron's " People 

 c 



