THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR CICADA. 213 



Miss Morris says in forty-two days, and other persons say in 

 fourteen days. 



The young insect when it bursts the shell is one sixteenth 

 of an inch long, and is of a yellowish-white color, except the 

 eyes and the claws of the fore legs, which are reddish ; and 

 it is covered with little hairs. In form it is somewhat grub- 

 like, being longer in proportion than the parent insect, and is 

 furnished with six legs, the first pair of which are very large, 

 shaped almost like lobster-claws, and armed with strong 

 spines beneath. On the shoulders are little prominences in 

 the place of wings ; and under the breast is a long beak for 

 suction. These little creatures when liberated from the shell 

 are very lively, and their movements are nearly as quick as 

 those of ants. After a few moments their instincts prompt 

 them to get to the ground, but in order to reach it they do 

 not descend the body of the tree, neither do they cast off 

 themselves precipitately ; but, running to the side of the limb, 

 they deliberately loosen their hold, and fall to the earth. It 

 seems, then, that they are not borne to the ground in the 

 egg state by the limbs in which their nests are contained, but 

 spontaneously make the perilous descent, immediately after 

 they are hatched, without any clew, 'like that of the canker- 

 worm, to carry them in safety through the air and break 

 the force of their fall. The instinct which impels them 

 thus fearlessly to precipitate themselves from the trees, from 

 heights of which they can have formed no conception, with- 

 out any experience or knowledge of the result of their adven- 

 turous leap, is still more remarkable than that which carries 

 the gosling to the water as soon as it is hatched. In those 

 actions that are the result of foresight, of memory, or of 

 experience, animals are controlled by their own reason, as 

 in those to which they are led by the use of their ordinary 

 senses, or by the indulgence of their common appetites, they 

 may be said to be governed by the laws of their organization ; 

 but in such as arise from special and extraordinary instincts, 

 we see the most striking proofs of that creative wisdom 



