MUSICIANS 259 



entitles this Cicada to be considered the Methusaleh 

 of insect-life, it is underground sucking at roots, 

 and is unseen. The eggs are laid in slits made by 

 the females in the stems of shrubs, and the newly 

 hatched grub burrows into the ground. 



Owing to the rapid changes that take place in 

 the United States, places that were woods or open 

 prairies when the Cicada's eggs were laid are 

 flourishing cities before the seventeen-year cycle is 

 complete, and some of the poor Cicadas have been 

 known to emerge into cellars instead of the open air ; 

 whilst it is fair to assume that many never emerge 

 at all because the place of their interment has 

 been sealed by laying concrete floors. 



Reverting to the musical abilities of these insects, 

 it should be pointed out that there is considerable 

 difference apparently in the character of the 

 sounds produced by American Cicadas and those 

 of Europe. Concerning the latter, the ancient 

 Greeks kept them in cages for the sake of their 

 songs, and Kirby and Spence have a paragraph 

 which is worth quoting in this connection. Cicadas, 

 they declare — 



" Seem to have been the favourites of every 

 Grecian bard from Homer and Hesiod to Anacreon 

 and Theocritus. Supposed to be perfectly harm- 

 less, and to live only upon the dew, they were 

 addressed by the most endearing epithets, and were 

 regarded as all but divine. One bard entreats the 

 shepherds to spare the innoxious Tettix, that 

 nightingale of the Nymphs, and to make those 



