The Cicada: his Music 



rear wings is a slight, almost oval protu- 

 berance, which is distinguished by its dull- 

 black colour from the silvery down of the 

 surrounding skin. This protuberance is the 

 outer wall of the sound-chamber. 



Let us make a large cut in it. We now 

 lay bare the sound-producing apparatus, the 

 cymbal. This is a little dry, white mem- 

 brane, oval-shaped, convex on the outside, 

 crossed from end to end of its longer 

 diameter by a bundle of three or four brown 

 nervures, which give it elasticity, and fixed 

 all round in a stiff frame. Imagine this 

 bulging scale to be pulled out of shape from 

 within, flattening slightly and then quickly 

 recovering its original convexity owing to 

 the spring of its nervures. The drawing 

 in and blowing out will produce a clicking 

 sound. 



Twenty years ago, all Paris went mad 

 over a silly toy called the Cricket, or Cri-cri, 

 if I remember rightly. It consisted of a 

 short blade of steel, fastened at one end to 

 a metallic base. Alternately pressed out of 

 shape with the thumb and then released, the 

 said blade, though possessing no other merit, 

 gave out a very irritating click; and nothing 

 more was needed to make it popular. The 



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