VOCAL ¢ INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC OF INSECTS. 377 
Magazine of Natural History’ for 1832, where he calls it 
hematodes, has informed collectors of the ferny groves it 
haunted, and here some enthusiasts have heard a male prac- 
tising a dithyrambic ; but I went out and shook the milk-white 
blossoms in vain. Returning to my books, I learnt that the late 
Prof. Carus, having a kindred desire to hear a Cicada sing, and 
failing to do so in Germany, decided to travel south to Italy. 
Consequently, in the spring of 1878, I enlisted the sympathies of 
an elderly relative who retained reminiscences of the grand tour, 
and induced her, with reluctance, to revisit the classic fields ; 
indeed, when we went past Avignon and came in sight of the 
grey olives, I heard her exclaim that she ‘‘ never wished to see 
them again.’”’ However, we arrived safe at Verona in the pleasant 
month of May, and having duteously visited the amphitheatre and 
supposed tomb of Juliet, I found myself at liberty to walk in the 
meadows where the field-crickets were chirping and the Adige 
runs swift and deep. Here I discovered the cockchafer-like grub 
of a Cicada that had come out of the ground to enjoy the balmy 
air. J was then hurried south on a circular tour to the island 
of Capri, where the hotel waiter assured me the Cicadas would 
not sing before the middle of June, that they were in full-voiced 
choir in August, and that when the cold breath of autumn came 
the ground was covered with their dead bodies. Then, after a 
prolonged stay at Anacapri, in view of Vesuvius, continually 
smoking or steaming, with no idea of an eruption, my lady 
relative commenced to entertain fears of encountering the summer 
heat, so we returned post-haste to Turin, where she left me to 
my meditations. 
Anxious to hear the Cicada band, I forthwith secured a room 
—they called it a stanza—near the hostelry of Madonna del 
Pilone, which a Piedmontese woman, who spoke a little intelli- 
gible Italian, came daily to sweep out with a laconic greeting of 
“Bon serai.” The morning after my arrival I took a stroll 
along the shady avenue that runs beside the smooth flowing 
River Po, where Cicada ornt was already chirping among the 
bushes; and on the 16th of June I surprised a coterie coliected 
among the poplars and acacias that overhung the smooth flowing 
river, occupied in singing overtures, con amore, to the harsh 
‘“‘kroax! kroax!”’ of the green frogs, raising their voices in a 
Zool. 4th ser. vol. XII., October, 1908. 26 
