towers of Notre Dame, drowned so many thousands of the inquisitive
Parisians.




CHAPTER III

THE SONG OF THE CIGALE


Where I live I can capture five species of Cigale, the two principal
species being the common Cigale and the variety which lives on the
flowering ash. Both of these are widely distributed and are the only
species known to the country folk. The larger of the two is the common
Cigale. Let me briefly describe the mechanism with which it produces its
familiar note.

On the under side of the body of the male, immediately behind the
posterior limbs, are two wide semicircular plates which slightly overlap
one another, the right hand lying over the left hand plate. These are
the shutters, the lids, the dampers of the musical-box. Let us remove
them. To the right and left lie two spacious cavities which are known in
Provençal as the chapels (_li capello_). Together they form the church
(_la glèiso_). Their forward limit is formed by a creamy yellow
membrane, soft and thin; the hinder limit by a dry membrane coloured
like a soap bubble and known in Provençal as the mirror (_mirau_).

The church, the mirrors, and the dampers are commonly regarded as the
organs which produce the cry of the Cigale. Of a singer out of breath