ere the anatomist intervenes, roughly demanding of the Cricket:
"Show me your instrument, the source of your music!" Like all things of
real value, it is very simple; it is based on the same principle as that
of the locusts; there is the toothed fiddlestick and the vibrating
tympanum.

The right wing-cover overlaps the left and almost completely covers it,
except for the sudden fold which encases the insect's flank. This
arrangement is the reverse of that exhibited by the green grasshopper,
the Decticus, the Ephippigera, and their relations. The Cricket is
right-handed, the others left-handed. The two wing-covers have the same
structure. To know one is to know the other. Let us examine that on the
right hand.

It is almost flat on the back, but suddenly folds over at the side, the
turn being almost at right angles. This lateral fold encloses the flank
of the abdomen and is covered with fine oblique and parallel nervures.
The powerful nervures of the dorsal portion of the wing-cover are of the
deepest black, and their general effect is that of a complicated design,
not unlike a tangle of Arabic caligraphy.

Seen by transmitted light the wing-cover is of a very pale reddish
colour, excepting two large adjacent spaces, one of which, the larger
and anterior, is triangular in shape, while the other, the smaller and
posterior, is oval. Each space is surrounded by a strong nervure and
goffered by slight wrinkles or depressions. These two spaces represent
the mirror of the locust tribe; they constitute the sonorous area. The
substance of the wing-cover is finer here than elsewhere, and shows
traces of iridescent though somewhat smoky colour.

These are parts of an admirable instrument, greatly superior to that of
the Decticus. The five hundred prisms of the bow biting upon the ridges
of the wing-cover opposed to it set all four tympanums vibrating at
once; the lower pair by direct friction, the upper pair by the vibration
of the wing-cover itself. What a powerful sound results! The Decticus,
endowed with only one indifferent "mirror," can be heard only at a few
paces; the Cricket, the possessor of four vibratory areas, can be heard
at a hundred yards.

The Cricket rivals the Cigale in loudness, but his note has not the
displeasing, raucous quality of the latter. Better still: he has the
gift of expression, for he can sing loud or soft. The wing-covers, as we
have seen, are prolonged in a deep fold over each flank. These fo