172 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



may gratify his curiosity without injuring the object of it. It is 

 remarkable, that though these insects are furnished with long legs 



KIVULET IN SHORT LITHE. 



behind, and brawny thighs for leaping, like grasshoppers ; yet when 

 driven from their holes they show no activity, but crawl along in a 

 shiftless manner, so as easily to be taken ; and again, though provided 

 with a curious apparatus of wings, yet they never exert them when 

 there seems to be the greatest occasion. The males only make that 

 shrilling noise, perhaps, out of rivalry and emulation, as is the case 

 with many animals which exert some sprightly note during their 

 breeding time. It is raised by a brisk friction of one wing against the 

 other.* They are solitary beings, living singly male and female, each as 

 it may happen ; but there must be a time when the sexes have some 

 intercourse, and then the wings may be useful perhaps during the 

 hours of night. When the males meet they will fight fiercely, as I 



* Xenarchus, the Athenian comic poet of the Middle Comedy, flourished about 

 B.C. 330 ; in his play, yclept varves, or " Sleep, " he thus felicitates the male cicadas, 



tir (fy 01 TiTTtyi? ov% f 

 uv rats 'yuvotil-fv olid' OTI&VV 



' ' Happy the cicadas' lives 

 Since they all have tongueless wives. 



