SINGING 



359 



which is scratched by the so-called " scraper," a neighbouring 

 part which is furnished with a hard edge (Fig. 179). 



Some Hemiptera (bugs), such as Pirates stridulus and 

 Reduvius personatus, produce a shrill sound by moving forward 

 their thighs within the cavity of the prothorax. The male 

 locust or cicada has this power still more developed, and was 

 said by the ancients to "sing". According to Landois the 

 sound is produced by the vibrations of the margins of the respi- 

 ratory tubules ; Powell attributes it to the vibrations of a mem- 

 brane which is put in motion by a special muscle. The male 

 crickets and grasshoppers also chirp and squeak continuously. 

 According to Darwin, there is a kind of locust on the river 

 Amazon which produces so melodious a sound that the Indians 

 keep it in little cages made of plaited willow. Although the 

 musical instruments of the three sub- 

 orders of the Orthoptera are so various, 

 they are all remarkably simple in con- 

 struction. In crickets a toothed ridge, 

 or vein, on one wing-case is rubbed trans- 

 versely with great rapidity against a 

 smooth hard ridge on the upper surface 

 of the opposite wing ; in locusts the left 

 wing is the violin bow, lying across the FlG I?g Chafer (After 

 right wing which is used as a violin ; there Landois.) r, the rasps. 

 is a fine " nerve" with a saw-like edge on 



the under surface of the left wing which is drawn transversely 

 over the " nerve " which rises from the upper surface of the 

 right wing. The Acridides do their fiddling in a different way : 

 generally speaking, the inner surface of the upper part of the 

 thigh, which is furnished with little elastic teeth, acts as violin 

 bow (Fig. 180), and they play either on the ridges attached to 

 the wing cases, or on a ridge on the abdomen, the lower part 

 of which is expanded so as to form a large bladder in order to 

 increase its resonating powers. 



These examples, I think, show that there is no lack of 

 musicians among animals ; I shall now proceed to give a short 

 resume of what is known concerning prehistoric musical instru- 

 ments and the beginnings of instrumental music. A complete 

 history of musical instruments, or an account of the instru- 



