2 20 PSYC/fE [Oct.— Dec. 



singing, and put several of tliem in a tin box, carrying them home. A third 

 locality, reported to me by Mr. Andrews, is in East Greenwich, near the West 

 Greenwich line at " Shippies," about half a mile east of Carr Pond. They were 

 seen here June 18-19, 1903. 



I may add that Mrs. Emma Wiggins of Anthony, R. I., kindly wrote me that 

 Mr. Carpenter of Washington, R. I., saw the 17-year Cicada in the "Pat" region 

 about the middle of June this year. He told her that it also appeared there seven- 

 teen years ago ; that he has one in his house that was collected in the same place 

 thirty-four years ago. 



The specimens I collected agreed in size, markings, and color with others from 

 the middle states in my collection, presenting no local variations. 



It thus appears that there have been three visitations of the 17-year Cicada in 

 Rhode Island, i. e. in 1869, 1886, and certainly in 1903, and that it appears in iso- 

 lated places, not continuously over an extensive area. 



It may be of interest to recall that Harris, in his Treatise on the injurious 

 insects of Massachusetts, states that this insect is known to have appeared at 

 Plymouth, Mass., in 1633, at Plymouth, Sandwich, and Ealmouth, Mass., in 1804, 

 at Sandwich in 1787, 1804, and 1821. Also in the Connecticut Valley at Hadley 

 1818, Westfield, 1835, North Haven, Conn., 1724, 1741, 1758, 1792, i8og, 1826, 

 1843, and at Martha's Vineyard in 1833. From these dates it would seem that there 

 is a discrepancy between the Rhode Island years and those of Eastern Massachusetts 

 and Martha's Vineyard, the estimated Rhode Island 3'ear, being for the past century 

 1808, 182^, 1842, 1869, 1886, and 1903. 



Desirous of ascertaining whether this Cicada had appeared in Massachusetts 

 this year, I wrote to Prof. H. T. Fernald, Associate entomologist of the Hatch 

 experiment station, Amherst, Mass., who writes me as follows : — 



"I made a quite thorough investigation of this insect this year as we expected 

 it here. I obtained the aid of the Secretary of our State Board of Agriculture and 

 through him inquired as to its presence, of all of his correspondents in the state, 

 besides many of my own. In this way I reached every county and quite a number 

 of towns in each county, there being over 200 persons in all. Not one of them either 

 saw or heard of the Cicada this year, and I am satisfied that it was not present in 

 the Connecticut valley part of Massachusetts at least, from my observations, and as 

 no one reported it from anywhere else I think that if it was present it must have 

 been very local." 



