42 THE PERIODICAL CICADA. 
less forerunners of this Brood XXI. On account of my absence in 
Europe | obtained no further data in 1884 for the more southern loecali- 
ties, but for Martha’s Vineyard Prof. C. E. Bessey published the fol- 
lowing note in the American Naturalist, October, 1883: ‘‘ While driving 
across ‘the plains’ of the central part of Martha’s Vineyard, Massa- 
chusetts, in the last few days of June of this year, I observed large num- 
bers of the Periodical Cicada (Cicada septemdecim). The scrub oaks, 
which here cover the whole ground, were literally alive with them. 
Specimens of twigs containing eggs were secured, as also of the insects 
themselves and their abandoned pupa skins. * * * The insects were 
confined to a narrow belt not exceeding half or three-quarters of a mile 
in width and of unknown length, and possibly this may account for the 
fact that the inquiries referred to above failed to elicit any knowledge of 
previous visitation. Supposing Dr. Harris to be right, we have here a 
slight acceleration in development, due probably to the well-known 
milder climate of the island.” In the editorial remarks to this note I 
considered this limited appearance on Martha’s Vineyard as precursive 
to Brood X XI, but there is yet some doubt about its real position. 
Broop XXIT.—Septendecim—1868, 1885. 
In the year 1885, and at intervals of seventeen years thereafter, they will, in all 
probability, appear on Long Island; at Brooklyn, in Kings County, and at Roches- 
ter, in Monroe County, New York; at Fall River, and in the southeastern portion of 
Massachusetts ; in Rutland County, Vermont; in Pennsylvania, Maryland, District 
of Columbia, Delaware, and Virginia; in northwestern Ohio, in southeastern Mich- 
igan, in Indiana, and Kentucky. 
This brood has been well recorded in the East in 1715, 1732, 1749, 1766, 1783, 1800, 
1817, 1834, 1851, and 1868. It is spoken of in Hazzard’s Register for 1834, published in 
Philadelphia, while Mr. Rathvon has himself witnessed its occurrence during the lat- 
ter four periods in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. 
It is the fourth brood of Dr. Fitch, who only says that it ‘‘reaches from Pennsyl- 
vania and Maryland to South Carolina and Georgia, and what appears to be a de- 
tached branch of it in the southeastern part of Massachusetts.” He is evidently 
wrong as to its occurring in South Carolina and Georgia, and it is strange that he 
does not mention its appearance in New York, for Mr. F. W. Collins, of Rochester, in 
that State, has witnessed four returns of it there, namely, in 1817, 1834, 1851, and 
1868, while the Brooklyn papers record its appearance there the present season (1868). 
As these two points in the State are about as far apart as they well can be, the inter- 
vening country is probably more or less occupied with this brood. 
Mr. H. Rutherford, of Rutland County, Vermont, records their appearance in that 
neighborhood in 1851 and 1868. (New York Semi-Weekly Tribune, June 27, 1868.) He 
also witnessed them in the same place in 1855, and, as will be seen by referring to 
Brood XVIII, they also occurred on Long Island and in southeastern Massachusetts in 
that same year, 1855. Exactly thirteen years intervening between 1855 and 1868, one 
might be led to suppose that they had a tredecim brood in the East. But did such a 
brood exist, it would certainly have been discovered ere this, in such old settled parts 
of the country, and all the records go to show that they have nothing but septendecim 
there. By referring to Brood VIII, the mystery is readily solved, for we find that in 
that part of the country there are two septendecim broods, the one having last ap- 
peared in 1855, the other the present year, 1862. 
