INSTRUMENT OF GNAT. 221 



the Xantippes of antiquity, which is equally applicable both 

 to scolding and to musical matrons of the present day. 

 " Happy," says Zenachus the Ehodian, 



" Happy the cicadas' lives, 

 Since they all have noiseless wives !" 



The so-called "Horn" or "Trumpet of the Gnat," would 

 seem no wind instrument at all ; its buzz, or hum, as well as 

 that of other two-winged flies, appearing, says Kirby,* to be 

 produced by friction of the base of the wings against the chest. 

 This conclusion would seem, however, scarcely to be reconciled 

 with the fact remarked by Eennie,f that they sometimes, espe- 

 cially towards autumn, fly in silence, although, when flying, 

 the base of the wings must of necessity rub against the chest. 



" The roving bee proclaims aloud 

 Her flight by vocal wings." 



So says the poet ; and, . in support of the accuracy as well as 

 elegance of the dictum, he has the testimony of that careful 

 naturalist Swammerdam, who opines that her humming pro- 

 ceeds from the wings alone, especially the small membrana- 

 ceous pair at the shoulders, when played upon by air propel- 

 led from the subjacent air-tubes or spiracles, aided by certain 

 adjacent cavities which open wide apertures under the wings. 

 That the wings alone do not, however, produce the bee's hum, 

 seems sufficiently proved by an experiment of Hunter's, 

 wherein he found that, after its wings were cut off, the poor 



* Introduction to Entomology. t Insect Miscellanies. 



VOL. II. 14. 



