TIMES AND SEASONS. 



kind of drumming noise, which gradually quickens 

 to a whistle, and at length increases in shrillness 

 and intensity, till it almost equals a railroad- 

 whistle. It was so loud that, when standing full 

 twenty yards from the t ree where it was in opera- 

 tion, the sound was so shrill, that you had to 

 raise your voice considerably to address your 

 neighbour. The entomological productions of the 

 tropics struck me as being quite as astonishing in 

 size and nature as the botanical or zoological 

 wonders. There is another beetle, called the 

 razor-grinder, that imitates the sound of a knife- 

 grinding machine so exactly, that it is impossible 

 to divest one's self of the belief that one is in 

 reality listening to some 'needy knife-grinder,' 

 who has wandered out to the tropical wilds on 

 spec."* 



This latter was pretty certainly not a beetle 

 proper, but a Cicada,\ an insect of another order; 

 remarkable for its musical powers, even from the 

 times of classical antiquity. These are doubtless 

 sexual sounds; the serenades of the wooing cava- 

 liers, who, as Mr. Kirby humorously says, — 



" Formosam resonare decent Amaryllida sylvas." 



A friend who has resided in Burmah informs me 

 that there at midnight the stranger is often 

 startled by the loud voice of a species of gecko, 

 which is frequently found in the houses. Its cry 

 is exceedingly singular, and resembles the word 

 "tooktay," pronounced clearly and distinctly as 

 if spoken by a human tongue. It is a source of 

 much alarm to the natives of India who accom- 

 pany Europeans to that country ; as they believe 



* Sullivan's " Rambles in North and South America," p. 307. 

 + Dr. Hancock has made out the "razor-grinder" of Surinam 

 to be the Cicada clarisona. 



37 



