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 



KIVULET 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 pjay, yclept i V e, or " Sleep," he thus felicitates the male cicadas. 



eZr' flrrlv ol reTrtyec ov/c ev&ii/xoi'cc 

 &v Tdif ywaifii/ ovS' drtovv ^aivJjc tvi: 



" Happy the cicadas' lives 

 Since they all have tongueless wives." 



