
HEM)" FRA. 107 
| but, on the contrary, crumpled ana — /of wrinkles (Vig. 79). When 
‘it is touched, it is more sonorous than the driest parchment. If the 
furrows or its convex surface are rubbed with a small body without, 
‘such as a piece of paper, piercing or tearing, it is easily made to 
sound; and the sound is occasioned by the portions of the kettle- 
drum which are depressed by the friction of the 
small body, returning to their former position as 
soon as it has ceased to act upon them. It is here 
|that the two strong muscles act whose existence 
and use were discovered by Réaumur. 
“Tt is clear,” says this naturalist, ‘ that when 
‘the muscle is alternately contracted and expanded 
‘with rapidity, one convex portion of the kettle- 
drum will be rendered concave, and will then re- 
assume its convex form by the force of its own 

spring. Then this noise will be made, this song ,,. Panett: Wek 
of which we have been so long seeking an ex- Male Cicada. 
planation, because we wished to find out all the parts by means 
of which He, who never makes anything without its use, willed 
that it should be produced.” 
Let us add, to complete what we have already said on this sub- 
ject, that if the kettledrums are the essential organs of the insect’s 
song, the mirrors, the white and wrinkled membranes, and the 
exterior shutters which cover in the whole apparatus, contribute 
largely, as Réaumur pointed out, to modify and strengthen the 
sound. 
We have said above that the female Cicada does not sing. And 
‘so her singing organs are quite rudimentary. This fact, moreover, 
has been known for ages. Xenarchus, a poet of Rhodos, says, 
with little gallantry :-— 
“‘ Happy Cicadas ! thy females are deprived of voice!” 
Nature has indemnified the female Cicada for this privation, by 
giving her an instrument less noisy indeed, but more useful. This is 
a sort of auger, destined to saw through the bark of the branches 
of trees, and lodged in the last segment of the abdomen, which, 
for this purpose, is hollowed out groove-wise. | By the aid of a 
system of muscles the auger can be protruded or retracted at 


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