The Pine Cockchafer 



Years ago, a mortar thundering under the 

 plane-tree in which the orchestra of the 

 Cicadae * was performing did not for a mo- 

 ment interrupt or otherwise affect their con- 

 cert: at a later date, the hullabaloo of a 

 holiday crowd and the crackling of fireworks 

 let off close by failed to disturb the geometry 

 of a Garden Spider working at her web, 2 to- 

 day, the limpid tinkle of Les Cloches de 

 Corneville leaves the insect profoundly in- 

 different, in so far as we are able to judge. 

 Are we to infer deafness? That would be 

 going a great deal too far. 



These experiments merely justify our 

 opinion that the insect's acoustics are not 

 ours, even as the optics of its faceted eyes are 

 not to be compared with those of our own. 

 A mechanical toy, the microphone, hears if 

 I be permitted to say so that which to us is 

 silence; it would not hear a mighty uproar; 

 it would be thrown out of gear and work im- 

 perfectly if subjected to the din of thunder. 

 What of the insect, another, even more deli- 

 cate toy ! It knows nothing of our sounds, 



1 Cf. The Life of the Grasshopper: chap. iv. Trans- 

 lator's Note. 



2 Cf. The Life of the Spider, by J. Henri Fabre, trans- 

 lated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. x. 

 Translator's Note. 



20Q 



