136 Miscellaneous. 



Its song was powerful, and resembled that of the Black Ougel, 

 but was occasionally interrupted with the harsh craking note com- 

 mon to many of the Warblers, and at intervals it uttered a single 

 shrill cry. 



The specimen was very fat, and when opened the testicles were 

 found to be much enlarged ; the stomach contained small beetles and 

 flies. 



From the nature of the locality, from the time when captured, and 

 from the enlarged state of the testicles, there can be little doubt that 

 this bird was breeding in the neighbourhood : and I have some rea- 

 son for believing that the nidification of this species has occurred in 

 another part of England. I have had in my possession for nearly 

 two years an egg taken by a friend of mine in Northamptonshire, 

 which agrees in every respect with Thienemann's figure and descrip- 

 tion of the egg of Sylvia Turdoides ; and now, since the capture of 

 the bird in Britain, it is impossible to doubt that this egg belongs to 

 that species. It would therefore appear probable that this delightful 

 songster, the largest of the European Warblers, may be a regular 

 summer visitant to our island. Notwithstanding its large size it 

 might easily pass unnoticed, skulking as it does in the low herbage, 

 and seldom exposing itself to view. Its song, too, by most would 

 be taken for that of the Black Ougel ; and even now it might have 

 escaped detection had not the accurate ear and experienced eye of 

 Mr. Robson been engaged in the pursuit. 



Newcastle-on-Tvne, 15th July 1847. 



On the habits of Cicada septendecim. By S. P. Hildreth, M.D. 

 It is now seventeen years since, in 1829, this curious insect ap- 

 peared in this portion of Ohio. Its exit from the earth, where it had 

 remained excluded from the light of day for so long a time, was 

 looked for with considerable interest. They were first seen to come 

 out of the ground on the 14th of May, 1846, ascend some bush, fence, 

 or tree, cast off their exuviae, and become a flying insect. They had 

 been observed, near the surface, since the beginning of April, and 

 were turned up by the plough, and dug out of the earth by hogs, 

 which were very fond of them, as were also birds, domestic fowls and 

 cats. At a brick-yard in Marietta, where the clay was dug from the 

 side of a hill, under the remains of an old orchard of apple-trees, the 

 workmen observed the cells of this insect in 1838, in the large masses 

 of earth broken off from the side of the bank. In 1840 I visited 

 the spot, collected several of the Cicada? and preserved them in spirit. 

 Their cells at that time were measured, and found to be a third less 

 than in the seventeenth year. The cells are oval and very smooth 

 within ; they are two and a quarter inches long and three-fourths of 

 an inch in diameter, being sufficiently large for the single Cicada, 

 which inhabits it, to move and turn round. Thus they dwell for 

 sixteen years and ten months secluded in a grotto of their own con- 

 struction. 



After the eggs of the female are deposited in the tender branches 

 * From Silliman's American Journal for March 1847. 



