98 Life and Immortality. 



extent to receive from ten to twenty eggs. The side-pieces 

 of the piercer act as a groove to convey the eggs to the nest, 

 where they are deposited in pairs, but separated from each 

 other by a narrow strip of wood. When two eggs have been 

 thus placed, the piercer is withdrawn for a moment, and then 

 inserted till two more eggs are dropped in a line with the 

 first, and thus the operation is repeated until the fissure has 

 been filled, when the insect removes to a little distance and 

 commences to make another nest to contain two more rows 

 of eggs. It takes about fifteen minutes to prepare a groove 

 and fill it with eggs. As many as twenty grooves are some- 

 times made in a branch by a single insect, and when the limb 

 has been sufficiently stocked she goes from it to another, 

 or from tree to tree, until she has got rid of her complement 

 of from five hundred to seven hundred eggs. So weak does 

 she at length become, in her continued endeavor to provide 

 for the succession of her race, as to fall, in an attempt to fly, 

 an almost lifeless lump to the earth, where her spirit soon 

 goes out never more to enliven its frail house of clay. 



Although Cicadas abound most upon the oaks, yet 

 there seem to be no trees or shrubs that are exempt from 

 their attacks, unless it be the various species of pines and 

 firs. The punctured limbs languish and die soon after the 

 eggs are laid, and as often happens are broken off by the 

 winds ; but when this is the case the eggs never hatch, for 

 the moisture of the living branch seems necessary for their 

 proper development. 



The eggs are one-twelfth of an inch in length, and one- 

 sixteenth of an inch through the middle, but taper to an 

 obtuse point at each end. They are of a pearl-white color. 

 The shell is so thin and delicate that the form of the inclosed 

 insect can be seen before the egg is hatched. One writer 

 claims that fifty-two days, and others that fourteen days, 

 constitute the period required for the hatching of the egg. 



When it bursts the shell the young insect is one-sixteenth 

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



