240 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
object of it. It is remarkable, that though these insects are fur- 
nished with long legs behind, and brawny thighs for leaping, like 
grasshoppers ; yet when driven from their holes they show no 
activity, but crawl] along in a shiftless manner, so as easily to be 
taken ; and again, though provided with a curious apparatus of 
wings, yet they never exert them when there seems to be the 
RIVULET IN SHORT LITHE, 
greatest occasion. The males only make that shrilling noise, 
perhaps, out of rivalry and emulation, as is the case with many 
animals which exert some sprightly note during their breeding 
time. It is raised by a brisk friction of one wing against the other.* 
_ *Xenarchus,'the Athenian comic poet of the Middle Comedy, flourished about B.C. 330; 
in his play, yclept teres, or *‘ Sleep,” he thus felicitates the male cicadas,— 
etr’ eloiv of rérreyes ctx evdaimoves 
dy rats yuvactiv otd dtioty wre ev: 
‘** Happy the cicadas’ lives 
Since they all have tongueless wives.”’ 
