SONGS WITHOUT WORDS. 185 



in order, whilst the crickets are the least specialised and most primi- 

 tive of all. It is a most noteworthy observation that in this group of 

 insects a special organ of hearing is developed, the production of 

 hearing powers thus taking place contemporaneously with the perfec- 

 tion of the song. Organs of hearing have been certainly discovered 

 only in the insects under consideration. By some naturalists, the 

 antennae or feelers, borne on the head, have been credited with the 

 performance of this function, but this view is problematical at the 

 best. In the grasshoppers the " ears " consist of two organs, some- 

 what resembling drums in general conformation. These are found 

 at the attachments of the last pair of legs. In the cricket and locust 

 the hearing organs are found on the fore-legs. Thus it is both curious 

 and interesting to find that the development of sounds and the pro- 

 duction of ears to hear have taken place together in this group of 

 insects, which geologically may claim to be one of the most ancient 

 of the insect class. And the fact in question best illustrates to us 

 that correlation between the varied ways and means of life which is 

 so continually exemplified by the researches of workers in science 

 byways. 



We stray in pastures classical and especially Anacreon-wise, 

 when we endeavour to investigate the biography of the cicada, 

 whose marital happiness in the possession of a silent partner has 

 already been remarked. Says Anacreon of the cicada : 



Thee, all the muses hail a kindred being ; 

 Thee, great Apollo owns a dear companion ; 

 Oh ! it was he who gave that note of gladness, 

 Wearisome never. 



The Greeks of old delighted, and the Chinese to-day find pleasure, 

 in the song of cicadas, imprisoned in cages like birds ; and as Kirby 

 and Spence tell us, the emblem of music was a cicada sitting on a 

 harp. This fashion of doing honour to the insect arose from the 

 legend that Eunomus and Ariston, two rival Orpheuses, were con- 

 tending for a prize in harp-playing. Eunomus broke a string of his 

 harp during the competition, but a cicada, who, doubtless through a 

 kindred interest in musical science, had been a spectator of the con- 

 test, flew to the instrument, and seating itself thereupon, supplied 

 with its note the place of the missing string. Little can we wonder, 

 of course, that Eunomus gained the prize in this legendary competi- 

 tion. The sound-producing apparatus of the cicada was formerly 

 believed to consist of a special modification of the breathing openings 

 of these insects. The breathing organs of insects consist of a com- 

 plicated arrangement of trachece or delicate air-tubes which ramify 

 throughout their bodies and convey air literally to every portion of 

 their frames. The air is admitted to this peculiar system of air-tubes 

 by means of apertures placed on the sides of the body and named 



