POLYTECHNIC 

 V 



INSECT VOICES. 201 



degree of doubt is still existing, quite sufficient to invite the 

 lovers of nature to make active and careful use of their own 

 senses, judgment-guided, in the investigation of those resem- 

 bling gifts bestowed upon the Insect tribe. The nature of 

 Insect voices, with the instruments by which they are made 

 audible, will form the subject of another Episode. Suffice it 

 to notice here, that a power of producing sounds would scarcely 

 have been given them, unless a capability of mutual commu- 

 nication through their medium had at the same time been 

 afforded. By these, and perhaps also by smaller voices, to us 

 inaudible, the passions of Insects are likewise no doubt ex- 

 pressed ; and that their tones, though entirely instrumental, 

 are susceptible of alteration at least through fear, is evidenced 

 by a common fact noticed alike by naturalists and poets. 

 When a fly finds herself in the power of her Spider-foe, her 



" Fluttering wing 

 " And shriller sound declare extreme distress :" 



a sound totally distinct from her usual buzz, and elicited only 

 by that excess of terror, or peculiar form of it, which even 

 capture by the hand or in a honey -pot is insufficient to call 

 forth. The shrill scold of a Humble Bee when imprisoned in 

 the hand gives audible evidence no less indisputable of min- 

 gled fear and anger. 



Insects are pre-eminently gifted with the sense of smell. No 

 flock of vultures can be directed more unerringly to their re- 

 volting prey by scenting its odours from afar, than are certain 



