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thus placed, the piercer is withdrawn for a moment, and then 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