746 [Assembly 
recognized, though at a distance of some twenty rods. As it was 
repeated at short intervals, I was able to draw near and capture 
the songster, who had come out some days in advance of the 
main swarm. The note, which is uttered only by the males, is 
peculiar, and may be represented by the letters M-e-e-E-E e-e-c-om, 
uttered continuously, and prolonged to a quarter ora half minute 
in length, the middle of the note being deafeningly shrill, loud 
and piercing to the ear, and its termination gradually lowered till 
the sound expires. 1 1 a wood in the vicinity of Ottawa, Illinois, 
on the 22d of September last, I heard the note of a cicada identi¬ 
cal with the above, except that the syllables were short, and 
uttered at regular brief intervals, thus, tsheeou, tsheeou, tsheeou, 
much resembling the creaking of a grindstone when in want of 
grease. This was probably some autumnal species, a native of 
that vicinity; but it might possibly have been a straggling indi¬ 
vidual of ihe seventeen-year lo ust, which had not completed his 
transformation until three months af er his due time, and which 
uttered.his notes in this hurried, impatient manner, upon finding 
himself “ solitary and alone.” 
Circumstances may cause this insect to appear and disappear 
somewhat earlier at some of its visits than at others. Mr. Wight, 
editor of the Prairie Farmer, informs me that the Illinois brood 
last year had mostly disappeared upon the four h of July,‘whilst 
the preceding visit of this same brood was in vigorous life and 
activity at that date, as was recollected from the fact that a 
particular neighborhood.had met together to commemorate the 
day, in a barn, which was the most spacious edifice in the vicini¬ 
ty, and the company were much annoyed in their festivities by 
the incessant din which these locusts kept up in and around the 
building. 
This insect dwells entirely in timber land, never inhabiting 
fields which have been cleared seventeen years, or the prairie 
lands of the west. It was noticed the past year as being more 
wide-spread in many places in Illinois than it was on its previous 
visit. Fruit or forest trees, wherever they had been planted 
upon the prairies, were seventeen years ago destitute of these in- 
