The Life of the Grasshopper 



which, lowered to a greater or lesser depth, 

 alter the intensity of the sound and, accord- 

 ing to the extent of their contact with the 

 soft abdomen, allow the insect to sing mezza 

 voce at one time and fortissimo at another. 



The exact similarity of the two wing- 

 cases is worthy of attention. I can see 

 clearly the function of the upper bow and 

 the four sounding-areas which it sets in mo- 

 tion; but what is the good of the lower one, 

 the bow on the left wing? Not resting on 

 anything, it has nothing to strike with its 

 hook, which is as carefully toothed as the 

 other. It is absolutely useless, unless the 

 apparatus can invert the order of its two 

 parts and place that above which was below. 

 After such an inversion, the perfect sym- 

 metry of the instrument would cause the 

 necessary mechanism to be reproduced in 

 every respect and the insect would be able 

 to stridulate with the hook which is at pre- 

 sent unemployed. It would scrape away as 

 usual with its lower fiddlestick, now become 

 the upper; and the tune would remain the 

 same. 



Is this permutation within its power? 

 Can the insect use both pot-hooks, changing 

 from one to the other when it grows tired, 



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