he common Cigale, and does not sing so late in the
evening.

Although constructed on the same fundamental principles, the vocal
organs exhibit a number of peculiarities which give the song its special
character. The sound-box is lacking, which suppresses the entrance to
it, or the window. The cymbal is uncovered, and is visible just behind
the attachment of the hinder wing. It is, as before, a dry white scale,
convex on the outside, and crossed by a bundle of fine reddish-brown
nervures.

[Illustration: 1. THE ADULT CIGALE, FROM BELOW.

2. THE ADULT CIGALE, FROM BELOW.

3. THE CIGALE OF THE FLOWERING ASH, MALE AND FEMALE.]

From the forward side of the first segment of the abdomen project two
short, wide, tongue-shaped projections, the free extremities of which
rest on the cymbals. These tongues may be compared to the blade of a
watchman's rattle, only instead of engaging with the teeth of a rotating
wheel they touch the nervures of the vibrating cymbal. From this fact, I
imagine, results the harsh, grating quality of the cry. It is hardly
possible to verify the fact by holding the insect in the fingers; the
terrified _Cacan_ does not go on singing his usual song.

The dampers do not overlap; on the contrary, they are separated by a
fairly wide interval. With the rigid tongues, appendages of the abdomen,
they half shelter the cymbals, half of which is completely bare. Under
the pressure of the finger the abdomen opens a little at its
articulation with the thorax. But the insect is motionless when it
sings; there is nothing of the rapid vibrations of the belly which
modulate the song of the common Cigale. The chapels are very small;
almost negligible as resonators. There are mirrors, as in the common
Cigale, but they are very small; scarcely a twenty-fifth of an inch in
diameter. In short, the resonating mechanism, so highly developed in the
common Cigale, is here extremely rudimentary. How then is the feeble
vibration of the cymbals re-enforced until it becomes intolerable?

This species of Cigale is a ventriloquist. If we examine the abdomen by
transmitted light, we shall see that the anterior two-thirds of the
abdomen are translucent. With a snip of the scissors we will cut off the
posterior third, to which are relegated, reduced to the strictly
indispensable, the organs necessary to the propagation of the species
and the preservation of the individual. The rest of the abdomen presents
a spacious cavity, and c