THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR CICADA. 



209 



different years, and understand that the locust-year, in some 



places not far distant, 



is different from their Y ' e - 86- 



year in this town." 



This letter was ac- 

 companied by specimens 

 of the insects, in their 

 various states, obtained 

 and preserved by Mr. 

 Goodwin. 



The writer of an ar- 

 ticle in the " Boston 

 Magazine " for Novem- 

 ber, 1784, observes that 

 Mr. Morton must have 

 been mistaken as to these 

 insects, in saying that 

 they eat up the green 

 things, which from the 

 structure of their mouths 

 we now know could not 

 have been the case. 

 This writer also records 

 the appearance of these insects in 1784, and the place of 

 his residence, in which this occurred, is believed to have 

 been in the County of Bristol; which coincides with the 

 remark made by Mr. Goodwin, that in different places they 

 appear in different years. This remark is furthermore con- 

 firmed by the observations of various persons * who have 



* Among the authorities which I hare consulted upon the history of the seven- 

 teen-year Cicada, may be mentioned the Key. Andrew Sandel, of Philadelphia, 

 an abstract of whose account is given in the 4th vol. of Mitchill and Miller's 

 "Medical Repository," p. 71; the "Columbian Magazine," Vol. I., pages 86 and 

 108; Mr. Moses Bartram's account in Dodsley's "Annual Register" for 1767, 

 p. 103; Dr. McMurtrie, in the 8th vol. of the " Encyclopedia Americana," p. 43; 

 Dr. S. P. Hildreth's interesting account in the 10th vol. of Silliman's " American 

 Journal of Science," p. 327; and a pamphlet entitled "Notes on the Locusta," 

 &c, with which I have been favored by the author, Professor Nathaniel Potter, 

 27 



