LETTER XXIV. 
ON THE NOTSES. PRODUCE D BY 
TONGS CIES: 
THAT insects, though they fill the air with a variety 
of sounds, have no voice, may seem to you a paradox, 
and you may be tempted to exclaim with the Roman 
naturalist, What, amidst this incessant diurnal hum of 
bees ; this evening boom of beetles; this nocturnal buz 
of gnats ; this merry chirp of crickets and grasshoppers ; 
this deafening drum of Cicadee, have insects no voice ! 
If by voice we understand sounds produced by the air 
expelled from the lungs, which, passing through the 
larynx, is modified by the tongue, and emitted from the 
mouth,—it is even so. For no insect, like the larger 
animals, uses its mouth for utterance of any kind: in 
this respect they are all perfectly mute; and though in- 
cessantly noisy, are everlastingly silent. Of this fact the 
Stagyrite was not ignorant, since, denying them a voice, 
he attributes the sounds emitted by insects to another 
cause. But if we feel disposed to give a larger extent 
to this word; if we are of opinion that all sounds, how- 
ever produced, by means of which animals determine 
those of their own species to certain actions, merit the 
