284 Fiftieth Keport ox the Static Musi:um 



formed by the pupa of a Cicada that had emerged frnm the earth 

 beneath the cellar. Finding a dark chamber, and ajiparently (le.-,iring to 

 work up to daylight, the Cicadas had taken the moist clay and of this 

 formed pellets with which the tubes were built up. apparently with 

 the purpose of bridging over the vacancy and ihus reaching the surfiice. 



These facts api)eared to me so interesting that I procured a large 

 number of the tubes, arid I had the first report verified by the written 

 testimony of the owner of the house and several ether well-known 

 citizens of Rahway. 



The document sent me with the tubes has remair.ed in my possession 

 to the present time. It is dated June, 1877, and reads as follows: 



" These cones were erected by the pupas of the Cicada in the cellar of 

 a house belonging to Alonzo Jaques, Rahway, during paits of May and 

 June, 1877. I'hey were built in an unfloored cellar of a house con- 

 structed about eight years ago in an old orchard. The cellar was dug 

 to about the depth of a foot in red clay, and the bottom covered by a 

 slight layer of debris, sand, sticks, etc. The cellar was perfectly dark 

 during the construction of the cones, the only opening being shut. The 

 locality is a dry one, the house being situated on a rise of grourd, and 

 about a quarter of a mile from the nearest water — a ditch dry in sum- 

 mer. These cones w-ere not seen in the course of erection, but when the 

 cellar was opened, about the time the locusts made their first appearance, 

 the whole cellar bottom was covered by them. The tops of all were 

 closed, but on breaking some of them the pupas were seen both in the 

 hole in the ground and in the cone. 



"After the cellar had been opened and left so, they appear to have 

 stopped building and to have made holes in the tops of the cones for 

 their exit. These cones were a great curiosity to the people of Rahway, 

 and many came to see them, declaring them something entirely new in 

 their experience." 



(Signed) A. E. Crow, 



Alonzo Jaques, 

 W. B. Devrie, 

 M. L. Crow. 



In the facts cited above we have evidence of the exercise of intelligence 

 in the Cicada, and a judicious adaptation of means to an end in circum- 

 stances that it would seem must have been without precedent in the 

 experience of that or any preceding genei"ation ; and, therefore, for which 

 no education of ancestors could have given a preparation. It is possible 

 that the pupa of the Cicada is sometimes embarrassed in its ascent to 

 the surface, by water, by too wet or too dry sand or mud, but it is hardly 

 possible to imagine circumstances where the construction of a tunnel 

 would be necessary. 



In the earth, caves of any considerable size rarely or never occur, 

 since surface water is constantly flowing through all superficial materials, 

 and filling cavities with transported matter. Caves often occur in rocks, 

 but the Cicada has no power to penetrate rock, and lives in earth near 

 the surface. 



Perhaps some of those who have made the habits of the Cicada a 

 study, can suggest a school in which they could have received the train- 

 ing that fitted them for the engineering Avork they attempted in the case 



