28’ 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
the teeth of the comb might be adjusted to each other as 
nicely as the chords of a piano, and so may the scream of 
the Cicada consist of an inconceivably rapid succession 
of tones which throw him into an ecstasy, though our ears 
are too gross to separate and distinguish them. We 
speak of the seven colours of the rainbow, and to our 
eyes they are only seven, but ants discern an eighth, and 
are violently agitated by it. 
If you feel contentious, you may ask, How can the 
Cicada enjoy its own music, having no ears? This 
objection rests on the fallacy that, because we hear 
with ears, nobody can hear without them. I have 
actually been told, by a nineteenth century man, that 
the pipe of the snake-charmer is only meant to fool 
us, since snakes have no ears and cannot hear it. The 
pipe of the snake-charmer! You could hear it with your 
bones. But let that pass. Fishes have no more ear than 
snakes, but the fishermen of this coast drive the mackerel 
into their nets by shouting and striking the sides of their 
boats with bits of hard wood. And now we are told 
that snakes and scorpions and spiders, at the Zoo, have 
been worked into wild frenzies by the tones of a violin. 
However, this proves nothing about the Cicada, and I 
