HEMIPTERA. 
In the infant ftate of mufic, men, feem to have preferred the natural founds of fome animals, to thofe 
of their uncouth inftruments. We cannot otherwife account for the extravagant praife, beftowed on the 
noife of this little creature. It is true, authors agree that the founds of fome kinds are exceeding loud and 
harmonious, and in the early ages of the world thefe might have a powerful influence on the human 
mind. It is related that the ancient Locri, a people of Greece, were fo charmed with the fong of the 
Cicada, that they erected a ftatue to its honour i, 
The ancients had attentively obferved the manners of its life, though they indulged in many poetical 
fi€tions concerning it; and particularly, when they affirmed that it fubfifted on dew. They have told us 
that it lives among trees *, which circumftance difcountenances the opinion of thofe moderns, who imagine 
the grafhoppers ! were the Cicadze of the ancients. 
Neither were they ignorant that the males only were furnifhed with thofe inftruments which externally 
appear to produce its found, or the purpofe for which that found was emitted™; though it was referved 
for more accurate naturalifts to difcover the complex organs by which it was caufed and modulated. 
Aldrovandus, near two centuries ago, defcribed the lamella, which he compares to the fruit of fome herbs, 
ealled by modern botanifts T//a/pi », 
Among later naturalifts who have noticed the Cicadz of foreign countries are Merian®, Margravius ?, &c. 
Merian fays, its tune refembles the found of a lyre, which is heard at a-diftance;.and that the Dutch in the 
i Some fay that once a certain player of Locri, contefting in the art of mufic with another, would have loft the victory, by the breaking 
of two ftrings of his inftrument; but a Cicada flew to his aid, and refting on the broken inftrument, fung fo well, that the Locrian was de- 
clared victor. The Locrians ereéted a ftatue to the Cicada as a teftimony of their gratitude. It reprefented the player with the infect on 
his inftrument. 
k Dr. Martyn fuppofed this refers to the fmaller branches in hedges, rather than to the lofty trees in forefts: we cannot entirely coin- 
cide with that opinion. 
1 Grafhopper. Cicada. They live almoft every where in hot countries. Love/. Hi/?. Animal. containing the fumme of all authors 
ancient and modern, p. 274, Ge. Ge. 
Cicada, a Sauterelle*, or, according to others, a balm cricket—Non eft quod vulgé, a gra/hopper, vocamus ; fed infeétum longé diverfum, 
corpore et rotundiore et breviore, qui arbufculis infidet et fonum quadruplo majorum edit. a gra/hopper, re&té locuftum reddideris, Morl ex 
Ray. Ainfworth. 
m Xenarchus, an old Grecian play-writer, ufed to fay jocofely that ‘ the Cicadze were very happy becaufe they had filent wives.” 
Ariftotle alfo knew the fexual difference of them; he mentions them as a delicious food: he preferred the males when young, but more fo 
the females before fhe laid her eggs. 
n Thalafpi parvum Hieraciifolium, five Lunariam luteam Monfpel. et Leucoium luteum marinum, Lobel. Stirpium Adverfaria nova, 
p- 74.—Aldrov. ; 
® Merian. Infecéta Surinamenfia. 
P Georgi Margravii rer. nat. Brafilie. Lid. 7. p. 257+ 

* Sauterelle, forte d’infecte, A locuft or grafhopper, Boyer. Cigale, a flying infe&t, The Cicada of the ancients, unknown in 
England. Boyer. 

