30 
ANIMAL CURIOSITIES 
Indian rat snake are able to produce a con¬ 
siderable volume of sound. 
Indeed, so powerful is the voice of the former 
reptile that its bellowing notes can be heard 
for a distance of a hundred feet. 
Of the many insect vocalists, the cicadas 
have earned considerable fame on account 
of their powerful voices. The song of the 
creatures was greatly appreciated by some of 
the ancient Greeks, and Virgil and other poets 
wrote verses in their honour. 
Xenarchus, however, does not appear to 
have shared the general enthusiasm for their 
musical performance, for he refers to the fact 
that only the males possess sound-producing 
organs and writes : “ Happy are the Cicada’s 
lives, for they all have voiceless wives.” 
A more modern writer, Dr. Shaw, in his 
book, Travels in Pennsylvania , complains 
that: “ . . . the cicada is perpetually stunning 
our ears with its most excessively shrill and 
ungrateful noise. It is, in this respect, the 
most troublesome and impertinent of insects, 
perching upon a twig, and squalling sometimes 
two or three hours without ceasing. . . .” 
Another writer refers to the penetrating nature 
of the insect’s voice and states that were one 
of the creatures to attain to the size of a human 
being, and supposing its voice were increased 
