The efforts of the former produce a scarcely perceptible stridulation; the palpitating throat of the latter is as ineffectual; and the desired one does not come.
Does the insect really require to emit these resounding effusions, these vociferous avowals, in order to declare its passion?
Consult the immense majority whom the conjunction of the sexes leaves silent.

In the violin of the grasshopper, the bagpipe of the tree-frog, and the cymbals of the _Cacan_ I see only their peculiar means of expressing the joy of living, the universal joy which every species of animal expresses after its kind.
If you were to tell me that the Cigales play on their noisy instruments careless of the sound produced, and merely for the pleasure of feeling themselves alive, just as we rub our hands in a moment of satisfaction, I should not be particularly shocked.

That there is a secondary object in their conceit, in which the silent sex is interested, is very possible and very natural, but it is not as yet proven.[1].