American Cicada or Locust. 49 



small jet of thin watery liquid, as if in self defence. From their be- 

 ing unprovided with organs for eating, it would seem that their whole 

 business during their short visit to the surface of the earth, was to 

 propagate their species and to die. While here they served for 

 food for all the carnivorous and insect-eating animals. Hogs eat 

 them in preference to any other food ; squirrels, birds, domestic 

 fowls, he. fattened on them. So much were they attracted by the 

 cicadas, that very few birds were seen around our gardens during their 

 continuance, and our cherries, &c. remained unmolested. By the 

 fourth or fifth day after their leaving the earth, the female began to 

 deposit her eggs in the tender branches of most kinds of orchard and 

 forest trees. She generally selected the wood of last years' growth, 

 and commenced her task on the under side of the twig, by slitting the 

 bark with her puncturing instrument, which embraced the properties 

 both of a saw and a punch, the point being lancet-shaped and ser- 

 rated, and then making a hole in an oblique direction to the pith of 

 the branch, she withdrew the instrument a little way, and deposited 

 an egg through a tube in the punch. This was repeated until from 

 ten to twenty eggs were deposited on each side of the center of the 

 pith, the center wood having been previously comminuted and cut up 

 so as to make a soft bed for the eggs, and to afford food for the em- 

 bryo until it hatched. There was daily an evident increase in the 

 size of the eggs, until they were hatched, and an evident diminution 

 of the comminuted woody fibres and enlargement of the cells con- 

 taining the eggs, so that they must have derived some sustenance from 

 the juices of the twig. Another proof that they did so, was, that the 

 eggs invariably perished in those branches which withered and dried' 

 up soon after the punctures were made. This work continued from 

 day to day, until the female had expended her stock of eggs, which, 

 so far as I could ascertain, amounted to about one thousand. When 

 this operation was completed, the object of her existence seemed to 

 be fulfilled, and in a few days she dwindled away and died. The 

 whole period of the Hfe of a single individual, from her leaving the 

 earth to her death, averaged from twenty to twenty-five days. The 

 life of the male continued for nearly the same time. When the ci- 

 cadas first leave the earth, they are plump and full of oily juices, so 

 much so that they were made use of in the manufacture of soap ; 

 but before their death they were dried up to mere shells ; and I 

 have seen them still able to fly a few feet, after one half of the body 

 was wasted away, and nothing remained but the head, wings and 

 Vol. XVIIL— No. 1. 7 



