AND DISTRIBUTE INSECT VARIETY. 21 



" But when the western winds with vital power 

 Call forth the tender grass and budding flower, 

 Then, at the last, i^roduce in open air 

 Both flocks ; and send them to their summer fare. 

 Before the sun while Hesj^erus appears, 

 First let them sip from herbs the pearly tears 

 Of morning dews, and after break their fast 

 On green-sward ground — a cool and grateful taste. 

 But when the day's fourth hour has drawn the dews. 

 And the sun's sultry heat their thirst renews ; 

 When creaking grasshoppers on shrubs complain. 

 Then lead them to their wat'ring troughs again." 



The end of the Blood Cicada was dire and classic. About 

 the commencement of July, there appeared as if by magic 

 certain greyish insectivorous birds with a harsh and guttural 

 note, among the sunny vines and woody knolls where the Cicadse 

 had established their coteries; and these, sitting on the low 

 brambles, sometimes two together, knavishly whistled a tune 

 until an unwary chanticleer Avas inveigled to respond, and so 

 betray his hiding. The obnoxious intruders then flew at him, 

 and brought him to the ground in their beak and claws screaking 

 most piteously, IFhee ! tohee ! But sometimes they missed their 

 mark, and the ill-used one took wing ; whereupon a chase would 

 ensue high over wood and dale, the Cicada exclaiming most 

 lustily the while. The very ear was held in involuntary suspense 

 to catch the final snap of the beak and death-scream of the 

 quarry. If one remembers right, the warblers of Plato^s retire- 

 ment are accused of this delinquency in the " Anthologia •'^ : — 



" Attic maid, with honey fed, 



Bear'st thou to thy callow brood 

 Yonder locust from the mead, 

 Destined their delicious food ? 



" Ye have kindred voices clear, 

 Ye alike unfold the wing ; 

 Migrate hither, sojourn here. 

 Both attendant of the spring. 



" Ah ! for pity drop the prize ; 

 Let it not with truth be said 

 That a songster gasps and dies 

 That a songster may be fed." 



Yet if the nightingale be truant, no less has our poet Cowper tar- 

 nished his bays. Not only does he conventionally term the Cicada 



