21 



top of it. Under ordinar}^ circumstances our Cicada would not 

 build a hut, but remain in his burrow. 



Finally there comes a fateful evening when as soon as the sun 

 has set, he claws his w-ay through the top of his mud turret or 

 out of his burrow and looks about him for further means of 

 gratUying his ambitions to climb. A bush, a tree, the highest 

 thing within his range of vision, attracts his attention and he 

 hurries toward it. It may be he finds himself in compan}' with 

 many of his kind hurrying toward the same goal but they are 

 of no interest to him as yet. Like the youth in the famous 

 poem, "Excelsior" is his motto and he heeds no invitation to 

 tarry. When he^reaches the highest place within his ken he 

 places himself probably back downward on some branch or twig 

 and takes a firm hold with all of his six pair of claws and keeps 

 very still for a time. Then his skeleton nymph-skin breaks 

 open at the back and there pushes out of it a strange creature 

 long and white, except for two black spots upon its back ; on he 

 comes until only the tip of his body remains in the old nymp- 

 skin ; then he reaches forward and grasps the twig with his soft 

 new legs and pulls himself entirely clear from the old hermit 

 garb. At once his wings begin to grow ; at first they are mere 

 pads on his back but they soon expand until they cover his 

 body and are flat like those of a miller. The many veins in the 

 wings are white and he keeps the wings fluttering in order that 

 they may harden soon. If, in the moonlight of some June 

 evening a Junior Naturalist should see a tree covered wath 

 Cicadas at this stage he would think it had suddenly blossomed 

 into beautiful, white fluttering flowers. 



As the night wears on, the color of our hero changes and his 

 wings harden ; until when the sun rises we behold him in the 

 glory of a black uniform with facings of orange and with beautiful 

 glassy wings folded roof-like above his bod3\ (Fig- n-) Great 

 is the change wrought in his appearance during this one mar- 

 velous night, and greater still the change wrought in his habits! 

 He is now no longer a hermit ; there are thousands of his kind 

 about him, a fact which he realizes with great joy. So happy 

 is he that he feels as if he must burst if he does not find some 

 adequate means for expressing his happiness in this beautiful 



