248 EYE SPY 



the meadow chorus, and he always gets the credit 

 as the chief soloist, and we say, "Hark! there's a 

 ' locust,' " when we ought to know better. Let us 

 try and straighten out this confusion of terms, and 

 let the younger generation at least begin the re- 

 form that shall eventually set matters right and 

 correct this wide-spread popular error. 



Our cicada belongs to quite another family of 

 insects. Instead of jaws for biting, as our fiddling 

 " grasshopper," the cicada has only a long " beak 

 for sucking," and this feature alone connects him 

 with the tribe of " bugs." Moreover, his methods 

 of music-making are very different from those of 

 the "grasshopper" tribe. It is the male only that 

 makes the music, and his instrument is a drum. 

 He carries two of these inclosed within his body, 

 the opening of each being covered beneath by a 

 broad plate, which is easily seen on the under sur- 

 face of the body. Deep within lies the " drum," 

 and the hard and hollow body of the insect acts 

 as a resonator or sounding-board. This drummer 

 does not use his legs as drum-sticks, as might be 

 supposed, his drum being vibrated by twitching 

 muscles and cords. 



The method by which the sound is produced 

 may be illustrated by a simple experiment. Take 

 a small piece of stiff, sized writing-paper or smooth 

 Manilla paper, and by pressure with some round- 

 ed blunt instrument produce a slight hollow or 



