onsists simply of the integuments of the walls,
except on the dorsal side, which is lined with a thin muscular layer,
and supports a fine digestive canal, almost a thread. This large cavity,
equal to nearly half the total volume of the insect, is thus almost
absolutely empty. At the back are seen the two motor muscles of the
cymbals, two muscular columns arranged like the limbs of a ~V~. To right
and left of the point of this ~V~ shine the tiny mirrors; and between
the two branches of muscle the empty cavity is prolonged into the depths
of the thorax.

This empty abdomen with its thoracic annex forms an enormous resonator,
such as no other performer in our countryside can boast of. If I close
with my finger the orifice of the truncated abdomen the sound becomes
flatter, in conformity with the laws affecting musical resonators; if I
fit into the aperture of the open body a tube or trumpet of paper the
sound grows louder as well as deeper. With a paper cone corresponding
to the pitch of the note, with its large end held in the mouth of a
test-tube acting as a resonator, we have no longer the cry of the
Cigale, but almost the bellowing of a bull. My little children,
coming up to me by chance at the moment of this acoustic experiment,
fled in terror.

The grating quality of the sound appears to be due to the little tongues
which press on the nervures of the vibrating cymbals; the cause of its
intensity is of course the ample resonator in the abdomen. We must admit
that one must truly have a real passion for song before one would empty
one's chest and stomach in order to make room for a musical-box. The
necessary vital organs are extremely small, confined to a mere corner of
the body, in order to increase the amplitude of the resonating cavity.
Song comes first of all; other matters take the second rank.

It is lucky that the _Cacan_ does not follow the laws of evolution. If,
more enthusiastic in each generation, it could acquire, in the course of
progress, a ventral resonator comparable to my paper trumpets, the South
of France would sooner or later become uninhabitable, and the _Cacan_
would have Provence to itself.

After the details already given concerning the common Cigale it is
hardly needful to tell you how the insupportable _Cacan_ can be reduced
to silence. The cymbals are plainly visible on the exterior. Pierce them
with the point of a needle, and immediately you have perfect silence. If
only there were, in my