378 NOISES OF INSECTS. 
F.), whose singular history* so much amused you, 4s 
well as Cicindela sylvatica of the same order, flies like- 
wise, as I have more than once witnessed, with a consi- 
derable hum. 
Whether the innumerable locust armies, to which I 
have so often called your attention, make any noise in 
their flight, I have not been able to ascertain ; the mere 
impulse of the wings of myriads and myriads of these 
creatures upon the air, must, one would think, produce 
some sound. -In the symbolical locusts mentioned in the 
Apocalypse®, this is compared to the sound of chariots 
rushing to battle: an illustration which the inspired au- 
thor of that book would scarcely have had recourse to, if 
the real locusts winged their way in silence. 
Amongst the Hemiptera, I know only a single spe- 
cies that is of noisy flight; though doubtless, were the 
attention of entomologists directed to that object, others 
would be found exhibiting the same peculiarity. The 
insect I allude to (Coreus marginatus, F.) is one of the 
numerous tribe of bugs; when flying, especially when 
hovering together in a sunny sheltered spot, they emit 
a hum as loud as that of the hive-bee. 
From the magnitude and strength of their wings, it 
might be supposed that many lepzdopterous insects would 
not be silent in their flight;—and indeed many of the 
hawk-moths (Sphinx, F.), and some of the larger moths 
(Bombyx, ¥.), are not so; B. Cossus, for instance, is said 
to emulate the booming of beetles by means of its large 
stiff wings; whence in Germany it is called the hum- 
ming-bird (Braumm-Vogel).—But the great body of these 
* Vor. 9, Ath Ed. 356— b Rev.ix. 9. 
